Aston Martin’s Team Principal, Andy Cowell, was left disappointed after the F1 Singapore GP, despite the entertaining radio discussions. The team had a great start to the weekend at the Marina Bay circuit, looking strong in FP. However, after Lance Stroll missed out on Q3 and Fernando Alonso qualified P10, they faced difficulties in the scorching Singapore streets.
In terms of standings, their two-time world champion finished P7, raising Aston Martin’s points tally by 6. While the Spaniard sits in P11 in the current Drivers’ Championship, with Lance not too far back in P13, the team faces pressure in the Constructors’. The results of the F1 Singapore GP put Aston Martin closer to Racing Bulls, separated by only 4 points.
Great time losses during pit stops
Opting for a one-stop at the Marina Bay Street Circuit was the expected strategy from the teams. At a track where overtaking is conditioned by the narrow and unforgiving walls, the tyre strategy is strongly based on efficiency. Yet, that’s where Aston Martin left something to be desired at the F1 Singapore GP, according to Andy Cowell:
“Yeah, we’re looking into that at the moment. I think we lost six seconds in the pit stop. Front right was the slowest aspect. So just digging through it. Pit stops these days come with a huge amount of data, a lot of imagery to study. And we’ll have to learn from that going forward,” explained the Team Principal in a print media session when discussing Alonso’s irritating pit stop.
This was not the only issue that the Spaniard flagged during the race. As he made his way through the laps, Alonso had quite a few disagreements with his race engineer. With adrenaline running high as the driver faced the overwhelming heat, his frustrations were understandable.
What happened between Friday and the race?
Coming into the F1 Singapore GP, Aston Martin was cruising at the top of the time sheets during Friday’s Free Practice sessions. While Fernando Alonso led FP1, Qualifying was an unexpected challenge for the team. Cowell explored the reasons why Aston Martin’s Singapore GP showed such a stark contrast between the sessions:
“I think we were running different programmes on Friday compared with others. I think we underperformed in qualifying because we were running higher fuel continuous laps in FP3. And we should have done that in FP2. And so there’s stuff we can learn. If we could go back, how many days does it need to be? It’s hard to count the days.
“If we could go back to Thursday and know what we know now, then we would have been a little bit more focused on this is Friday work, this is about qualifying here. Therefore, FP3, it’s qualifying simulations. Really, really fine margins in this championship this year.”
Continuing on with his statements, the Team Principal ended up ruing the lack of time during practice sessions. Cowell attributed the challenges Aston Martin faced to the lack of preparation for both qualifying and race pace.
“Fernando just got through in Q1, Lance didn’t. Both having similar issues in Sector 3. Fernando then got more practice, more opportunities and improved even further. If we’d had two extra practices in FP3, both would have been stronger.”
Seeing the positives after harsher race weekends
When looking at the bigger picture, Aston Martin improved significantly compared to the past rounds. The team chose to start the race on the Soft compound, as most of the others played it safe by picking the Mediums. Andy Cowell had quite the compliments towards the team’s tyre engineers and strategists.
Sharing some insights about the work that went into both Alonso’s and Lance’s tyre strategies, the TP was understandably upset by the lack of results. Additionally, Andy Cowell confessed his surprise at the turn of events that was the F1 Singapore GP.
“Yeah, I think, you know, great call to go on the Softs on the grid. Great work preparing that that was an option and knowing how to go long.
“You know, the fear was that you put the Softs on and you got to stop. And then there’s going to be a Safety Car 10 laps later. So you need to be able to go long, which is what Lance was fishing for. Yeah, and the statistics of all the prior races say that’s a sensible place to go fishing. Didn’t work out today.
“Yeah, so I think the tyre engineers did a great job, set it up well. We let Fernando down in the stop. But he just fought his way back, didn’t he? It was great to see. No safety cars, but lots of overtaking. Who’d have thought that here?”
