‘I’m ready to help as much as I can’ – Alonso explains what a positive weekend looks like for Aston Martin in China

Fernando Alonso has insisted that he is “ready to help as much as I can” to make the Chinese Grand Prix a smoother experience for Aston Martin as they continue to troubleshoot their car’s early issues.

In the build up to the first race of the season in Australia, the Silverstone-based outfit openly shared the problems that ultimately prevented both Alonso and Lance Stroll from finishing the Grand Prix, which was primarily used as a data gathering opportunity.

The Spaniard was nevertheless able to showcase the skills that have been present throughout his career, including his rapid reaction time that saw him improve from P17 to P10 on the opening lap. He slowly lost the positions and retired from the race, leading to his conclusion that there is plenty to tick off before Aston Martin can consider a round a success.

Asked what a positive weekend looks like for the team in a press conference with Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, he responded: “When we are able to do laps without any issues, I think they’re very important laps because even now, Esteban and Pierre were not optimised for Australia apparently.

“I think it was the same case for everybody and they are maybe 10 times ahead of us – if they completed 1,000 laps since the Barcelona test, we completed maybe 100 so we’re nine or 10 times behind. If they’re still not perfectly optimised, imagine ourselves.

“We are at square one so we limit the laps. We really need to be able to practice and find the window on the car on the chassis side. That will be very important for the weekend. I will be happy if we leave China with a more or less normal Free Practice, a more or less normal Qualifying accumulating laps, and probably attempt to do the full race on Sunday if we’re allowed.”

The stewards permitted Stroll to take part in the Australian Grand Prix even though he didn’t complete a lap in Q1 within 107% of the fastest time, allowing Aston Martin to bring their drivers into the garage during the race and review their learning before sending them back out several laps down.

Despite the challenges, Alonso remains eager to assist the team in their partnership with Honda and work towards the objective of completing every session without experiencing a reliability issue.

“Obviously we are now in this journey with the team, which isn’t ideal at the start, but it’s the first year of this collaboration between Aston Martin and Honda and we have to get through this moment in time,” he explained.

“I’m ready to help as much as I can. In the team I can just work harder and try to help Honda as much as we can by allocating some of the resources that Aston Martin has into the engine and the power unit.

“We are now in a different world in Formula 1 with all the data, GPS and analysis that we can have from the other teams. We can allocate some of those resources to make Honda focus on one thing and we can help them in some other areas on the power unit. We are one team.

"It’s a bumpy start but I hope it won’t last for too long. It will not be an immediate solution either.”