At British Grand Prix represents the halfway stage of the 2024 Formula 1 season and certain trends have emerged over recent races that point to how the campaign might end.
Red Bull have seen rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes close the gap in recent months but Max Verstappen still looks like the favourite for the Drivers’ Championship.
However, the worrying form of Sergio Perez means that the Constructors’ Championship is up for grabs and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in particular will fancy their chances of overturning an 87-point deficit.
READ MORE: The full 2024 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship standings
The midfield battle is also hotting up after Haas recorded their best finish of the season in Austria and Alpine have turned a corner after a terrible start to the campaign with RB still very much in the mix.
Unfortunately, Williams and Sauber are battling to avoid the wooden spoon which is doing neither of their pursuits of Carlos Sainz for next season any favours.
However, the team who may be most disappointed with how their recent races have played out is Aston Martin.
After starting 2024 as the strongest team outside of the top four manufacturers, they’ve not just been dragged into a midfield battle but arguably overtaken by some of their rivals.
Speaking on the Autosport Podcast, journalist Filip Cleeren was speaking about 106-podium driver Fernando Alonso.
After committing his future to the British team for at least the next two seasons, the team have gone backwards and every update they’ve added to the car has appeared to have very little difference to their race pace.
READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2
Fernando Alonso getting more fed up with Aston Martin’s performance
Talking about Aston Martin’s recent struggles, Cleeren said: “It’s been a couple of races now where they’ve completely lost any sort of competitiveness and the problem with their car is they haven’t developed it as well as the others as they have done the previous year.
“But then they also have this weakness in long, high-speed corners where their car just bounces all over the place and they’re finding it really hard to balance those corners and low-speed corners.
“The Red Bull Ring is one of the circuits where you have all types, you have slow corners at the start of the lap and high speed at the end, the same in Barcelona and they were nowhere there and Silverstone is not going to be any better.
“They are just desperate for upgrades that work, Fernando Alonso, we spoke to him a couple of times again this weekend.
“He seems to be getting chippier and chippier every weekend that this goes on.
“He said last weekend, ‘Less talk, more action’, and his mood hasn’t exactly improved this weekend, he’s so fed up with having to explain why the car isn’t great.
“He needs to see improvement very quickly.”
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Aston Martin under pressure to improve 2024 car
The Austrian Grand Prix really couldn’t have gone much worse for Fernando Alonso who picked up more penalty points that have seen him come a step closer to a race ban.
He finished 18, crashing into Zhou Guanyu in the process and never looked in contention to score points.
He’s only recorded one top-ten finish in the last five races, coming home in sixth at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Martin Brundle admitted during the race weekend that he couldn’t believe what’s going on at Aston Martin right now.
Brundle also noticed that Alonso looked fed up and nowhere near his best throughout the last few Grand Prix.
Aston Martin’s next upgrade is expected to arrive at the Hungarian Grand Prix, via The Race, meaning Sunday’s race at Silverstone could be another painful affair.
The post ‘Chippier and chippier’: 106-podium star getting increasingly annoyed with team after Austrian GP – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
