Alonso reveals ‘significant’ damage led to “undriveable” Aston Martin complaints

The two-time world champion endured an incident-packed race to forget in Singapore as he finished 15th and last of the classified runners. Alonso complained that his AMR23 was “undriveable” in the race as he rued a frustrating night. 

But it has now emerged that Alonso’s lack of pace was influenced by a damaged front suspension fairing, which came loose from his car in the early stages of Sunday’s race. 

Although the Spaniard refused to disclose exactly how much performance the damage cost him, he declared he was now “less worried” about Aston Martin’s slump. 

"Definitely it was not helping," Alonso explained. "We know how much it affected [us], and we will not share, but it was significant.

"So I'm a little bit less worried about the performance in Singapore after knowing the damage that we had.

"The pace was not the real one in the race and, without that, maybe we could have followed the train of the leaders and have less problems with the Alpine and then with [Sergio] Perez. Then everything would be changed after.

"When you're not too fast, you get into a lot of problems.”

Alonso insisted that he is “not at all" frustrated with Aston Martin’s regression after starting the campaign as Red Bull’s closest challengers. 

"I'm extremely happy with the project,” he said. 

"Also in difficult races like Singapore or Monza, all our debriefs, all our meetings with the factory, they are very productive. It is the weekends that we learn more in the season.

"So the steps that we plan ahead for the future, or for next year when we come to those races, are just huge.

"I never saw that kind of scale in terms of ideas and things on the table. So the motivation that the team has to become a top team and the resources and the determination is just outstanding. I'm very happy."