Lando Norris claims Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin made their car slower with every upgrade

Lando Norris hints the recent upgrades instigated Aston Martin's massive performance slump.

Lando Norris claims Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin made their car slower with every upgrade

Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris (Via IMAGO)


Mclaren took fourth place from Aston Martin in the Constructor’s Championship in the United States Grand Prix after a sixth podium for Lando Norris in the past nine races since the British Grand Prix. The team is now a serious contender for the P3 position currently held by Ferrari, with four races left in the season.

Mclaren and Aston Martin have had drastically opposing progress through the season. The former started at the bottom of the field, struggling to make it through qualifying. At the same time, Aston Martin was the second-best team on the grid behind Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso as the star man. The Spaniard scored consistent podiums to help the team remain at the top.

But the team was undeveloped by its rivals and McLaren’s Lando Norris didn’t hesitate to proclaim at COTA, after a solid day. He believes every upgrade AMR made to make their cars fast only made them slow, unlike McLaren who executed every major upgrade with near perfection.

It’s been clear that Aston are just, I don’t know, they seem to have made the car slower and slower with every upgrade that they brought.

~Lando Norris as reported by crash.net

He mentioned how they went from fighting Red Bull to Alonso and Stroll being eliminated in Q1 of the United States Grand Prix. Norris compared Aston Martin’s season with Mclaren’s and appreciated how his team improved from a terrible Bahrain GP to fighting for the top spot against Red Bull.

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Aston Martin is preparing to break Sprint protocol for the second time

After a disappointing result on Sunday, Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack said that it had always been dangerous to introduce upgrades on a Sprint weekend with such limited practice time, as Mercedes had prepared to in Imola until it was canceled.

Lance Stroll of Aston Martin Aramco and Mike Krack ahead of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix

Albeit acknowledging the “lesson learned” from the race, he said that they would not be averse to doing it again, saying such a situation would be “manageable” with fewer issues, as the data would be sufficient if not for a “glitch in the data” like in Austin.

You need to be aware of the risk. And we lost the Friday due to preparation, we were not well enough prepared, we overheated the front corners, and we lost the session.

Mike Krack as reported by planetf1.com

He mentioned that other teams were bringing upgrades into sprint weekends as well and that it was possible to execute faultlessly, though the risk involved would be higher.

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