Fernando Alonso remains optimistic about the underlying pace of his Aston Martin, despite a challenging qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix that saw him finish 17th.
The two-time world champion ended the session 2.5 seconds off the pace, but noted significant progress compared to Friday’s practice sessions.
Alonso attributed the improvement to the newfound reliability of the Honda engine, which finally allowed him to complete a consistent run of laps.
“That allowed me to finally be on track and in sync with other cars and try different things on the set-up,” Alonso said. “Even if the power unit is the same as yesterday, we gained like two seconds today just because we were on track and optimizing things on the chassis.”
While Alonso found gains, the team’s reliability struggles were highlighted on the other side of the garage. Teammate Lance Stroll was unable to participate in Saturday’s sessions due to persistent engine issues and is set to start from the back of the grid.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, the team faces a precarious situation regarding spare parts. With only two hybrid system batteries remaining and no immediate stock available from the Honda factory, Aston Martin may have to prioritize finishing the race over aggressive positioning to protect their inventory for next week’s Grand Prix in China.
“The main problem is the PU [power unit],” Alonso admitted. “We are down on power and reliability. We need to fix the power units, and Aston Martin is trying to help as much as possible with Honda.”
George Russell took pole position for the race following a crash by Max Verstappen. The Australian Grand Prix is scheduled to begin at 04:00 GMT on Sunday.
