Why it wasn’t bad news for Fernando Alonso that Mercedes overtook Aston Martin

weakness Mercedes The Spanish Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton second and George Russell third, was a blow to the table for the team and A serious warning to the aspirations of Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. In addition, Lance Stroll’s low scoring all season caused an injury a surprise In second place in the rating of creators.

Although the Spaniard has achieved great regularity in the championship so far, his seventh-place finish in Barcelona and the good pace of Mercedes have sounded the alarm. however, The Spaniard maintained his solidity in third place at the World Cup And he remains the main oppressor of the intractable Red Bull. Alonso is optimistic and warns that in Canada they will “crush” their direct competitors in the championship.

At Aston Martin they are planning a merger Another bundle of improvements The North American circuit talks about the novelties of the single-seat flat bottom. Precisely, it was the part of the car that was affected by Alonso’s off-track run in qualifying that reduced his chances of achieving a good grid position.

The importance of Canada

he Canadian Grand Prix Before and after in the 2023 Championship. Until this test, different teams had a certain amount of time Use the wind tunnel And test their pieces and updates there.

Use of this infrastructure is determined by position in the manufacturer’s standings from last season and the worst teams have more hours of availability than the leading teams.

With the difficult task of striking a certain balance, this usage limit will be reviewed after the race in Canada and A new usage time will be set of the 2023 ranking. The halfway point of the 400 hours is assigned 7th place and a 5% percentage is added or subtracted with respect to positions gained or lost. So far, Aston Martin has benefited greatly against its rivals from its poor performance last year.

The very important step by Aston Martin in 2023 will mean a significant reduction in wind tunnel usage time. If so far they have 80 hours more than Mercedes and 100 more than Ferrari, The Post-Canada Review will take that long away And it will be the engineers from Maranello (4th at the moment) who will have 20 hours more than those from Silverstone to work on their car.

As for Mercedes, the main competitor at the moment, The situation can be favorable For those of Fernando Alonso. After the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton and Russell overtook Aston Martin in the classification and, if they continued in this vein after Canada, would still have 300 hours in the wind tunnel compared to 320 hours for their rivals on the green.

within, Red Bull will continue to be the team with the fewest hours of use, although their performance is currently not affected by this issue. In addition to being ranked number one in the rankings, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez have both been hit with an over-budget penalty that has their limit reduced by an additional 7%.