Fernando Alonso defends puzzling Aston Martin decision: 'We will waste money'

Fernando Alonso has defended Aston Martin's decision not to bring any upgrades to the Miami Grand Prix, saying the team could "waste money" in the budget cap era.

Given the five-week break between the Japanese and Miami races, with no mandated shutdown period, the expectation was that every team would bring a sizeable upgrade package to Florida for last weekend's race.

Ferrari delivered 11 upgrades, but when the official FIA car submissions document was received on Friday, there was surprise as Aston Martin did not opt to bring any performance-boosting parts for Alonso or Lance Stroll. 

Instead, the Silverstone-based team had spent much of the five-week gap working with Honda to reduce the vibrations which have so badly affected the early part of the season, with a chassis taken to Sakura to try to aid in the push for solutions to the problem.

On-track in Miami, Alonso felt the vibrations had reduced to an acceptable level, with the team out-qualifying both Cadillacs for the first time, with Alonso claiming a season-high finish of 15th. 

However, the team are not expected to bring any major upgrades until at least after the summer break, with two-time champion Alonso explaining how the team is not going to "waste money" bringing upgrades which cannot propel it into the midfield.

When asked by RacingNews365 if he was "at peace" with the current situation, Alonso explained how the cost cap was playing a role in delaying Aston Martin's upgrade schedule.

"I am at peace because I understand the situation. The team has explained to me that if we bring one or two-tenths every race, it doesn't change our position," he answered.

"We are P19 or P20, and the next car is one second in front, so even if we bring two-tenths every race, it doesn't change our position, and it is a huge stress in the system, in the budget cap and things like this. 

"So until we don't have one second-and-a-half or two seconds [of upgrades], it is better not to press the button into production because we will waste money. 

"I think we will make steps on the drivability point of view, but on the performance, not, so we need to stick together. 

"It is going to be a very tough few races; it is going to feel repetitive. Obviously, we need to face the media every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so it is good, and you do your job, and we drive fast, but sometimes it seems repetitive.

"The message is that we have no upgrades until after the summer, so we don't need to come to Canada and: 'What do you expect in Canada?' 'The same.'

"'What do you expect in Austria?' 'The same', so that is the thing which we need to manage, and there is frustration from everybody in the team, but I think we are all relaxed.

"We are all committed to after the summer, having a better second-half of the year, and let's see if we can do that."