After the highs of his first season at Aston Martin, 2024 was a demoralising yr for Fernando Alonso. The group progressively misplaced contact with the front-runners and slipped into the midfield.
Within the yr he celebrated his forty third birthday, Alonso was no much less fast and dedicated than ever. His kind dipped considerably when the group started to wrestle, although this proved short-term.
The group loved an honest begin to the season. Alonso frequently certified his AMR24 barely larger than it deserved, and due to this fact slipped again within the race, however nonetheless took respectable factors finishes together with fifth in Jeddah (forward of each Mercedes, a Ferrari and a McLaren) and sixth in Japan.
That end in Jeddah proved to be the group’s finest results of the yr. Alonso achieved it by holding again George Russell, however he crossed a line making an attempt to do the identical in Australia, slowing abruptly and early at excessive velocity. The stewards accurately assessed the damaging implications of Alonso’s techniques and issued him a stiff penalty. Nevertheless their verdict on his tangle with Carlos Sainz Jnr in China – a slipshod however not cynical transfer – was harsh, and left Alonso justifiably involved about his accumulation of penalty factors.
The group’s season started to go awry in Miami, the place Alonso nonetheless salvaged factors once more from fifteenth on the grid. However he was poor at Imola after crashing in observe, dropped out in Q1 at Monaco and had a puzzling off-weekend in Austria the place he collided with Zhou Guanyu.
Fernando Alonso
| Finest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 3 | 20 |
| GP end | 5 | 19 |
| Factors | 70 | |
Surprisingly, Lance Stroll led Alonso house at Silverstone. They completed in the identical order in Hungary, although that was after the group advised Alonso to let his group mate by, and Stroll refused to offer the place again when ordered to.
As Aston Martin drifted farther from the tempo, Alonso more and more discovered himself occupying a ‘no man’s land’ between the 4 quickest vehicles and the remaining (together with his group mate). He continued to gather factors pretty frequently, however the going acquired robust because the season entered its remaining quarter.
It mentioned lots in regards to the problem Aston Martin skilled with their automotive late within the season that Alonso didn’t capitalise on the difficult circumstances in Brazil. He confirmed his common moist climate aptitude earlier within the season at Montreal, ending sixth.
Nevertheless Alonso rebounded to finish the yr on one thing of a excessive with factors within the remaining two races. Except for that early dip, this was one other characteristically robust season, which supplies F1’s most skilled driver each motive to consider he has one other title in him.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are primarily based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for his or her performances in every spherical in addition to different components.
Advert | Develop into a RaceFans supporter and
Formulation 1
Browse all Formulation 1 articles
