Aston Martin hoping for a better Sunday after a ‘challenging’ qualifying session at Silverstone

Aston Martin was the big story during the young 2023 Formula 1 season.

However, the season has aged, and the story has changed.

The team left the Miami Grand Prix sitting second in the Constructors’ standings. Now they are behind Mercedes, with Ferrari closing in on them as well, Following a “challenging” qualifying session ahead of the British Grand Prix, there is a chance the team might leave Silverstone — and their home race — having fallen to fourth.

Fernando Alonso managed to advance to Q3, but could only place ninth on the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. As for Lance Stroll, he could not advance to Q3 out of Q2, and will start 12th in the Grand Prix.

“It’s not the qualifying we wanted in what was a challenging session in drying conditions,” said Alonso in the team’s post-qualifying media report. “There is still a long race ahead of us tomorrow and our Sunday pace is normally a strong point of this car.”

“We still achieved another Q3 result, but we need to keep understanding our car at different circuits,” added Alonso. “The weather tomorrow may also be changeable, as it was today, so we need to remain focused and see what we can do in race conditions.”

Alonso can still take solace in the fact that when he left Miami he trailed Sergio Pérez by 30 points in the Drivers’ Championship. He currently is just 17 points behind the Red Bull driver. While that might have more to do with Pérez’s struggles as of late, it is something for Aston Martin and Alonso to point to right now.

As for Stroll, it was perhaps more bad luck than anything else. A late red flag in Q1 altered their tyre strategy, which may have cost him a shot at Q3.

“I think more was possible in qualifying today,” said Stroll. “The red flag forced us to run a third set of tyres in Q1, which meant we didn’t have a new set in Q2 and that put us on the back foot in comparison to others.”

However, as noted by Alonso, race pace has been a strength of the AMR23 this season, so there is a good chance they will be on the front foot Sunday instead of the back foot. In addition, overtaking is possible at Silverstone, particularly when compared with other circuits.

So perhaps Aston Martin can put together a better Sunday, after what was a “challenging” Saturday.