In Austin, both Aston Martin drivers dropped out of the race in qualifying after the first session and if that hardly surprises anyone in the case of Lance Stroll, it will not happen with Fernando Alonso in 2023. In addition, the two-time world champion managed to qualify for the qualifying finals in all previous stages of the season.
Fernando Alonso (17th): “This was the maximum we were capable of. The attempt was not ideal, mainly due to serious problems with traffic on the pit exit. Overall the moment I left the track was very poorly chosen and I started the lap literally a second before the end of the session time.
This caused me to end up too close to the vehicles in front and this also caused problems. However, it seemed to me that the lap itself was normal, but we did not have enough pace to progress to the second session.
This means that we have to perform as well as possible in the sprint on Saturday, because we will have great difficulties in the race on Sunday by starting from such distant positions. Although in fact they started in the morning, because the training was simply terrible. Lance didn’t do a single lap and I only managed to do five or six normal laps, which isn’t enough to get the hang of the new stuff.
As a result, I had to solve a problem in which there were too many unknowns, so during qualifying I had to act almost blindly, hence the result. But nothing can be repaired, the cars are in a closed park.
We are also using this weekend as a test in preparation for next year and although the situation is painful, we will see what conclusions we can draw.”
Lance walk (19th): “It didn’t seem to me that the session went badly. Actually the driving experience was very normal and although I missed the training completely, I got used to the car quite quickly, but we just weren’t fast enough.
Of course I was hoping for a better result, but you can overtake on this track, so we will try to make up for it in the race. We’ll see what we can do on Sunday.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
