Aston Martin have a “lot to learn” and develop their car for future races, states Mike Krack

Fernando Alonso drove the upgraded Aston Martin to a second-place finish in the Canadian GP. Despite being told to 'lift and coast' during the race, the veteran driver managed to hold off a charging Lewis Hamilton. He finished only nine seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.

With the upgrade package introduced in Montreal, Aston Martin seem to have reduced their deficit to Red Bull. The Silverstone team also seems to have found a good setup over the weekend, as one car finished on the podium, while Lance Stroll raced his way into the points.

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack admitted that the team has to go through a learning process, with the new upgrade package on the car. Speaking about how much the team optimized their upgrades last weekend, he said:

"That's a good question. It's difficult to answer. I think you know, always when you put new parts on the car, you have to do a bit of a relearning loop."

"How is your car behaving in different conditions, indifferent ride heights," he added. " So I think we have a lot to learn and we have to also develop the car further over the next races."

With the enormous amounts of data collected over the weekend, the team will be scouring through it to analyze how the upgrades performed, back at their base. The upcoming sprint weekend in Austria means they have to optimize their package after one practice session.

The true potential of AMR23's pace also wasn't realized in Montreal. This is because Fernando Alonso was asked to drive cautiously, as the team feared a potential fuel system issue. Max Verstappen was also not pushing in the lead, making it harder to calculate the team's true deficit to the RB19.

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Fernando Alonso wants Aston Martin to defeat Red Bull on merit

Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso is tired of waiting for the Red Bull to slip up, to get his first win of the season. He wants Aston Martin to match the pace-setting Red Bull team and win a race on merit.

The 41-year-old recently said on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast:

"It’s already too many times we are just hoping [for] something to happen to Red Bull, which it never does. We need to win it on merit and to put some pressure on them, maybe forcing an error."

The Spaniard is happy with the progress Aston Martin have made until now, as he called last weekend's outing "their most competitive race" of the year. He added:

"Only seven seconds from Max and we were matching the lap times most of the race, so I’m very happy with the car, with the upgrades we brought here, so more chances will come."

Alonso's elusive 33rd victory is finally in sight as he hopes to hunt down the RB19 to claim his win.