A crazy Aston Martin stat popped up after the Miami Grand Prix sprint qualifying, and it almost seems like a typo!
Here’s some surprising news about Aston Martin’s performance in the Miami Grand Prix sprint qualifying—and it’s not great.
Formula One is finally back this weekend after an unexpected five-week break caused by the cancellations of the Saudi Arabia and Bahrain races. Before Sunday’s main race, all drivers will race in the second sprint race of the season at 5:00 pm BST, with qualifying for it happening Friday evening.
McLaren’s Lando Norris took pole position in sprint qualifying, followed by championship leader Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, and Charles Leclerc.
At the other end, Aston Martin has had a really tough season so far. Their fastest lap in sprint qualifying was a 1:41.3 by Fernando Alonso, putting him 21st and 22nd on the grid. This is almost 14 seconds slower than Norris’s pole time of 1:27.8, showing just how far behind Aston Martin is, even though there was a lot of excitement around the team after hiring the famous designer Adrian Newey.
Alonso’s lap was also 6.4 seconds slower than the required 107% time. That meant he wasn’t officially classified in sprint qualifying, so the race officials could have stopped him from racing.
It gets even worse when you compare Aston Martin’s times to Formula Two qualifying. The slowest F2 time was 1:41.1, which means Aston Martin would have been last in both F2 and F1 grids—even though their car should be much faster. Alonso’s time was almost three seconds slower than the F2 pole lap of 1:39.8 set by Kush Maini.
Luckily for Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll, both drivers were fast enough in the 90-minute practice session earlier that day. Because of this, the race officials allowed them to race. The stewards said: “In line with Article B2.2.3b of the FIA F1 Regulations, we grant permission for both cars to start, as the drivers set satisfactory times in practice.”