Fernando Alonso highlights ‘reality’ for Aston Martin after ‘every difficulty’ of failed season

Aston Martin have been in no man’s land for most of the 2024 Formula 1 season and Fernando Alonso has admitted the team will produce a ‘completely new’ car in 2025.

The Silverstone squad are hitting restart for the final year of the current regulations in a bid to revert this year’s slide. Aston Martin narrowly lost out to McLaren for fourth place in the 2023 constructors’ championship by 22 points but trail the top four by 339 points this term.

McLaren are also leading the 2024 constructors’ standings ahead of the final two rounds at the Qatar Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Woking crew even have 608 points after 22 rounds – up from 302 in 2023 – compared to the 86 that Aston Martin have scored.

Fernando Alonso feels the ‘reality’ is Aston Martin are still ahead of their rival F1 teams

Alonso admits 2024 has not been the season that Aston Martin wanted, with the 43-year-old penning his best finish thus far of P5 in round two at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Lance Stroll took the 26-year-old’s best finish yet of P6 in round three at the Australian Grand Prix.

Even points have become hard for Aston Martin to secure, with Alonso failing to finish in the top 10 at the past four Grand Prix and Stroll failing to in the last nine since the Belgian Grand Prix. Their plight since Spa has seen Aston Martin only get 17 points and see their rivals gain.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Haas, Alpine – thanks to a double podium in Brazil – and Visa Cash App RB boast 50, 49 and 46 points before the Qatar GP after taking 23, 40 and 13 since Spa respectively. Yet Alonso believes the ‘reality’ is that despite their failures, Aston Martin are still ahead of their rivals.

“Every difficulty has taught us lessons that we will apply to next year’s car,” Alonso shared in the pre-race press conference. “That has been the positive thing about this year. It has been difficult but I have also enjoyed it. The difficulties have taught us lessons for the future.

“We have a good chance of finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship. It is not what we wanted. But it seems that many teams have done better than Aston Martin, when in reality they are behind.

“We will have a completely new car in 2025 and I hope it will give better results than the current one, although there are four teams in another league. It would be great to fight for the world championship, but next year it will be difficult.”

Aston Martin must fix their bouncing problems to help Fernando Alonso in 2025

One area Alonso will hope Aston Martin improve with their new car in 2025 will be bouncing. The Spaniard has struggled with his Silverstone squad’s set-up in recent rounds with Alonso complaining about Aston Martin’s car bouncing in Brazil and Las Vegas as it dealt great pain.

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix and the Las Vegas Grand Prix which followed after a two-week gap also highlighted how far Aston Martin have regressed between 2023 and 2024. Alonso made the podium at Interlagos in 2023 in P3 but finished this season’s race in a disappointing P14.

READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2

While Alonso finished the maiden Las Vegas GP in P9 last year, he could only manage P11 in 2024. Stroll also shone in Sao Paulo and Sin City last season with back-to-back P5 finishes as the campaign wound down. Yet the Canadian could only take P15 in Nevada last time out.

Alonso was Aston Martin’s only driver to race at Interlagos after Stroll beached his car in the gravel before the 2024 Sao Paulo GP started. The Montreal native drove into the gravel trap after spinning on the formation lap, having also crashed in qualifying just mere hours earlier.