While his streak of bad luck seemed never-ending, Fernando Alonso managed to put his Aston Martin in the top 10, leaving the F1 Austrian GP in P7. These points are crucial for Alonso, who has struggled since the beginning of the 2025 season. The two-time world champion handled the intense heat from his cockpit, and he had an interesting battle with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.
After three DNFs and race finishes right outside of points, the Spaniard’s luck turned around in Spain. While Aston Martin is currently ninth in the Constructors’, their most recent races showed potential for a comeback. Despite his misfortunes, Fernando Alonso harnessed his race craft, and his 13th position in the standings shows that.
His perspective on late race battles
The F1 Austrian GP brought a lot more to the table for Alonso besides the heat. As the Red Bull Ring is known for its three DRS zones and short track length, the Spaniard’s late race had quite some interesting moments. A three-way battle between himself, Bortoleto and Lawson for P6 brought the action to the back. Fernando Alonso went over his thoughts in the print media pen, highlighting Lando Norris’ part in the whole endeavour:
“And then at the end, Gabriel [Bortoleto] was a lot faster. I thought, I could not defend, but luckily enough, Lando [Norris] came just at the right moment [and] blue flags [were shown].
“And because Lando overtook us, the next lap was the chequered flag, because we got lapped.”
Furthermore, Alonso spoke about the swift decisions he had to make in order to avoid being overtaken by Bortoleto.
“I mean, I didn’t want to pass Lando [Norris], but I could not stay just behind Lando, because then Gabi [Bortoleto] would pass me. So I had to, you know, try different moves to confuse a little bit Gabi on what I was doing. And it worked fine.”
His role as Bortoleto’s manager
Since 2023, Gabriel Bortoleto has been a part of Alonso’s A14 driver management operation. Taking on the role of a mentor for the young rookie, the Spaniard was quite proud of Bortoleto’s first points in F1. Moreover, Alonso went over to the Brazilian after the F1 Austrian GP ended and congratulated him. The Aston Martin veteran spoke kindly of his driver, pointing out the difficulties along the way:
“It was very special, I think he has been outstanding this year. This weekend, especially, has been incredible, but for one reason or another. [Nico] Hülkenberg always scored the points on Sundays, so this was, maybe, not fair in Gabriel’s head sometimes.
“So, it’s good that he unlocked now this thing and hopefully the first of many points in Formula 1.”
