According to Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin’s own analysis of its performance places the team eighth in terms of pure pace, and its flashes of speed during the US GP weekend in Austin were flattered by outside circumstances.
Alonso was fourth in first practice, sixth in sprint qualifying, then started and finished 10th in the grand prix itself, having been eliminated from the sprint race in the first-corner accident. While it has become customary for Alonso to emphasise his contribution to a team’s results, there is some plausibility in this claim given that not only was this a sprint weekend, which is inherently disruptive to the order, but also Pirelli implemented a ‘step’ between the harder compounds.
