The 2025 British GP marked the end of Nico Hülkenberg’s podium drought, which lasted 239 starts in F1. While most in F1 are celebrating the German’s feat, Fernando Alonso is using Hülkenberg’s example to reprimand Aston Martin.
Driving for Sauber, Hülkenberg would have never hedged his bets on ending his podium-less run in 2025. It was always going to take something special to reach the milestone, and that is exactly what happened at Silverstone.
Starting in P19, Hülkenberg came through the order to take home P3 for the first time in his F1 career. Helping him get there were Sauber’s strategists, as they worked together to pit at the perfect moment for the second set of inters, and then dries.
Fernando Alonso left to rue what could have been in F1 British GP
That, according to Alonso, is exactly where Aston Martin failed at the British GP. Starting the race in P7, the Spaniard only managed a P9 finish, scoring two points. Alonso believes a P3 finish was on the cards for him as much as it was for Hülkenberg.
The Spaniard ended up behind teammate Lance Stroll and the German as they got the switch to inters absolutely spot on before the deluge arrived.
“It seems that P3 was very possible. I started P7, finished P9. Nico started P19, finished P3,” said Alonso in the media pen after the British GP. “So I think if you get it right, we know in these mixed conditions how good the result could be.
“It seems that we are not nailing the strategy always on these conditions, especially on my side of the garage. For whatever reason, we are always a little bit slow to react,” he added.
Teammate Lance Stroll finishing ahead in P7 irked Alonso further. The two-time F1 champion felt a strategy similar to Stroll’s would have seen him end in a better position.
Alonso would have happily taken Stroll’s track position at F1 British GP
Starting in P17 under treacherous rainy conditions, not only did Stroll do a phenomenal job to finish the race, but he also managed to beat his champion teammate on merit.
As per Alonso, strategy made all the difference between him and the Canadian driver. The 43-year-old admitted managing Stroll’s soft compound tyres with higher degradation would have been tougher towards the end of the race.
Nevertheless, Alonso would have preferred to be in Stroll’s boots rather than his own.
“Yeah, I don’t know, I would like to have his track position to be honest and try to feel the deg from that because I was P14 when everyone switches to dry, so I don’t know,” said Alonso.
“I think he was with the soft at the end, so maybe we grained the tyres more than the others because I had the medium and I had some graining as well, so I imagine the soft was maybe even worse.”
Alonso may not be the happiest with his strategists, but there is one call for which he must grant them due credit. That was the decision to put him on slick tyres on lap 38 when the rest of the grid was running on treaded tyres.
While that saw Alonso struggle for grip initially under wet conditions, it ultimately helped him pass a number of cars ahead of him. The medium compound tyre helped Alonso march from P14 to P8, before Albon got him at the end of the race.
