Guenther Steiner believes Fernando Alonso's points finish at the Dutch Grand Prix was a result of the Spaniard's brilliance rather than Aston Martin's latest upgrades. The former Haas team principal called it a 'Fernando special' moment.
Aston Martin arrived at Zandvoort with a highly anticipated power unit upgrade from engine partner Honda, following the B-spec car introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, the results did not meet expectations. Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished 17th and 18th in the sprint, and lined up 18th and 19th for the main race.
The situation worsened when Stroll was forced to retire due to damage sustained in a chaotic opening lap, triggered by Max Verstappen's crash. Alonso, meanwhile, executed an aggressive one-stop strategy to claim ninth place. The two points he scored at Zandvoort doubled the team's season tally.
Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner suggested the result was down to Alonso's skill rather than car improvement. "After what I saw on Friday and Saturday in sprint qualifying and the sprint, I was like, 'Wow, I think we overreacted a little bit to their resurgence.' And then also the qualifying on Saturday for the race, like, 'Wow, this is not going the right way,'" Steiner explained.
"This was a Fernando special here, doing it with one stop. That saved them. He could keep a decent pace, and what helps them at the moment is that there are really now three backmarker teams, which are far off everyone," he added.
With three points, all scored by Alonso, Aston Martin sits 10th in the constructors' championship. Alonso is 19th in the drivers' standings. Despite the struggles, Alonso remains optimistic about the car's direction but acknowledged there is still work to do with Honda.
"In general, we're still not in the place we want to be in terms of driveability. The downshifts and engine braking seem a little bit random, corner by corner," Alonso said. "So we still need to fine-tune it and, with the deficit on power, we still lose a lot on the straights. So now that we are more or less competitive in the corners, we need to improve that. But we are trying to do all this together. We need to give time to Honda as well to figure out what the problem is and where to fix it. So I'm happy, I'm relaxed. I trust both Silverstone and Sakura."
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