Alonso makes Aston Martin plea after ‘painful’ Italian GP

Fernando Alonso says his prediction of a "completely anonymous" Italian Grand Prix weekend came true as Aston Martin once again failed to score points.

From 11th on the grid, Alonso finished P11, just a tenth behind the penalised Kevin Magnussen and within a second of Alex Albon in ninth for Williams.

It was the sixth time in the last 11 races that Alonso has failed to score any points as Aston has slipped back from the leading four teams into a midfield fight.

It is currently 74 points, 218 behind Mercedes in fourth and 40 ahead of RB in sixth as the team is unable to recapture its 2023 form of scoring and challenging for podiums. 

Reflecting on what he described as a "painful" race, Alonso described how he believed he would be in store for an "anonymous weekend."

"There is nothing we can do, I mean we are in our team's hands and I think Lance and myself are trying to do the best we can," Alonso explained when asked by RacingNews365 if he could afford to be patient until the rules reset in 2026.

"From my side, I knew it was going to be a completely anonymous Monza 2024 from Alonso, but this year, Lance and myself have been very close, two or three seconds away [from points] at the end of the race. 

"It was one of the weekends where it was a little better, and I was happy with the car and maybe pushing to a level beyond 100%, and that was P11.

"We need to be patient, and we can accept not being in the top four battle, they are the top teams, but to be behind Williams, Toro Rosso [RB], we need to raise the bar a little bit and get better for Baku and Singapore."

Tyre woes

The two-time world champion, who is signed through 2026 added that tyre concerns were the major problem for the team. 

"We were eight-tenths from Albon and one-tenth from Magnussen, so only one second from P9 and so it is painful to lose the points," he said.

"We deserved it in a way with a well-executed race, but the car is what it is at the moment and we need to get better.

"We are quite hungry on the tyres, and normally our car doesn't have downforce in the corners so we rely completely on mechanical grip from the tyres, so we stress the tyre more than the others."