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F1 fans reacted to Fernando Alonso's team, Aston Martin's, poor upgrade package at the 2024 F1 Hungarian GP. The Spaniard was surprisingly slower than his teammate Lance Stroll in the first practice session around the Hungaroring.
The British team came to Budapest with a host of new parts for their car. They brought parts like a new front wing, floor body, floor fences, floor edge, etc., to improve AMR24's aerodynamic efficiency. In the first and second practice sessions, Alonso got to try out the new parts on his car, while Stroll drove the previous spec.
At the end of the Hungarian GP's FP1 session, Stroll, who has been consistently slower than Alonso in 2023 and 2024, was at least half a second faster than his teammate. The time difference showcased that the new spec car driven by Alonso was considerably slower.
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However, tables turned in FP2, where Lance Stroll finished P17, while Fernando Alonso secured P10.
Many fans were shocked by how Aston Martin's F1 car became slower after receiving the sizable upgrade package. They discussed that the British team is the only one whose upgrade packages were in fact a downgrade for their car. One also suggested that they should bring out the AMR23's specifications from the 2023 F1 Bahrain GP and use it in 2024.
Another fan even joked that they make better upgrades than Aston Martin in the F1 Manager video game.
"Aston Martin is the only team in F1 history to only bring downgrades to the car," a fan wrote.
"As expected, they should downgrade it to AMR23 bahrain specs then they will be faster team again," another added.
"Jesus, even I at f1 manager make better updates than them haahahah," someone joked.
Some fans also questioned Fernando Alonso's abilities and discussed whether they should praise Lance Stroll for delivering in FP1.
"Are we sure it's not the driver?" one follower questioned.
"It's one of the two. Either time to be proud of Stroll or time to be disappointed about Alonso," another fan discussed.
Fernando Alonso positive after Friday's practice despite poor FP1 performance with Aston Martin's upgrade package
Despite not being able to beat Lance Stroll's lap time in FP1, Fernando Alonso was generally happy with his and Aston Martin's performance on Friday at the 2024 F1 Hungarian GP. The Spaniard finished P13 in FP1, and P10 in FP2 while driving the new spec AMR24.
Speaking to F1.com, Alonso stated that though the team needed to analyze loads of data before Saturday, he reckoned that it was a good Friday for Aston Martin. He also predicted that the grid could be tight in the Grand Prix, and that qualifying would matter a lot since overtaking is hard at Hungaroring.
"In general, a good day. We need to learn more from the car, we need to analyze a lot of things tonight. But, so far I think it was a good Friday," Alonso said.
"I think it is going to be tight. I think, one or two tenths will seperate maybe 10 cars and we want to be on the upper part of the those 10 cars. So we have to nail everything, we will have to do a perfect Saturday. Obviously the race is going to be difficult to overtake, so qualifying will be about," he added.
