FIA confirms Alonso will not be able to start on the grid at Imola

TAfter repairs were made in a hurry between Free Practice 3 and Saturday qualifying, in addition to certain problems that appeared with the car in the first quarter, after entering the new gravel circuit for Fernando Alonso, it seemed that Of course, Aston Martin would prefer to skip the parc ferme and start from the pit lane. for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

The FIA ​​officially confirmed this tomorrow around 12.00, three hours before the race: “During the park between yesterday and today The Aston Martin Aramco team has made changes to the suspension configuration of the car number 14, so it will have to start the race from the pit lane.

in accordance with Article 40.9 of Formula 1 2024,” said a statement signed by FIA technical delegate Joe Bauer.

Fernando will try the new settings. move up at least 10 positions to get into the points, although on such a difficult track as Imola, for overtaking “more than in Singapore, for example, to overtake rivals,” as Fernando himself said, it will be a very difficult mission.

Break before leaving the track

Tom McCullough Aston Martin’s performance director spoke to the press this morning at Imola before confirming that Fernando’s car had skipped parc ferme to change the settings.

The British engineer commented on Fernandio leaving the track on the second set of soft tires in the first quarter: “At the third turn there was a click as the car turned and crossed the gravel. And we ended up with a bunch of holes on the edge of the floor that we were able to repair.”

. Thus, they claim that during the braking of the first option, some kind of malfunction occurred in the car, due to which the Asturian flew off the track.

Regarding the car he will be racing today, he notes that “It still has updated specifications. We partially fixed it (between FP3 and qualifying), but it was one of the reasons why the final stage ran into difficulties and was aborted.. Simply put, once we hit the gravel and damaged the floor, we weren’t going any faster. And Fernando at that time was still recovering from a very difficult third training session. “Both drivers are not very enthusiastic about the upgrade package,” he admits about those free triples, Fernando’s crash at Rivazza and everything that came with it afterwards.