"It’s going to be painful": Fernando Alonso resigned to Aston Martin's lack of performance

Aston Martin F1 driver Fernando Alonso claimed that the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday was going to be painful for them as they are lacking in performance. The Spanish driver qualified P11 for the main race on Sunday but will start in P10 due to the three-place grid penalty of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Despite starting in a points-playing situation, the two-time world champion was lacking in confidence as he finished behind the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in the qualifying on Saturday in front of his adoring fans.

Speaking with the media in his post-qualifying interview, Fernando Alonso spoke about Aston Martin's decline in the last couple of races while Alpine's progress since Monaco. He said (via RacingNews365):

“Alpine was in front of us in Monaco, it was very close in Canada. And here, they are just half a tenth in front. They’re getting better and we are getting worse, probably. The combination of the two is not great."

The 42-year-old also added that the triple header would be 'painful' for the Silverstone-based team but emphasized the importance of scoring points anyhow, adding:

“We have some things in the pipeline that should put us back in the right direction. It’s going to be painful here [in Spain], it's going to be painful in Austria and in Silverstone. We have to keep scoring points - if it’s eighth, seventh, ninth, whatever, we can't give up and [we need to] stay positive in these tough times.”

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Fernando Alonso gives an update regarding Aston Martin's upgrades in 2024

Having started the 2024 season competitively, the Aston Martin have fallen behind the leading pack and into the clutches of the midfield. They were one of the first teams to bring an upgrade package earlier in the season but it is yet to yield the results they had anticipated.

While providing an update regarding the next set of upgrades and improvements, Fernando Alonso stated that they were targeting the performance to improve before next month's summer break. He said:

“Hopefully before the summer break. But I think there are a lot of understandings in the team about what went right, what went wrong, not only this year, I think [also] the second part of last year.

“As all the teams, we are getting more and more extreme with the development. The cars are more critical to drive. Now we understood a few ideas that will bring performance [but] the next three or four races, some pain to go through.”

Fernando Alonso is currently P9 in the Driver's Championships with 41 points from nine races and two Sprints and is yet to score a podium this year.

He has scored the majority of the points for Aston Martin as the team sits in P5 in the Constructor's Championships with 58 points.