Aston Martin is preparing a set of new products for Silverstone

      In Barcelona, at Fernando Alonso's home Spanish Grand Prix, the two-time world champion finally scored his first points of the season, although he complained that the Aston Martin car still lacked speed on the straights.

      Speaking to the Spanish press after the race, Alonso said: "I hope that after Canada, the next technical innovations will arrive." That is, the team from Silverstone will try to increase the speed of the AMR25 for the British Grand Prix, its home stage of the championship.

      When Mike Krak, Aston Martin F1 racing director, was asked about this, he was somewhat evasive.: "Let's see. When the new items are ready, then we will present them.… We really need to make improvements, and it's not just about the speed on the straights, but also at the exit of the corners. In Imola and Barcelona, we wasted a lot of time on this.

      In general, we need to figure this out, because we were one of the slowest on the straight lines, so we also need to analyze what decisions we made earlier, trying to achieve improvements.

      The team has already started discussing these issues, and it's really important for us to figure it out, because we're making life very difficult for our riders, who have to look more in the rearview mirrors than forward."

      Krak was also asked about the drivers, since Lance Stroll refused to participate in the Spanish Grand Prix under somewhat vague circumstances, as we described.

      Aston Martin F1 has two reserve drivers, Felipe Drugovic and Stoffel Vandoorne, but both must start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Brazilian has a contract with the Cadillac factory team, Stoffel has a contract with Peugeot. If necessary, the team can ask Mercedes for permission to put Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel.

      Apparently, Krak hopes that it won't come to that, and the basic scenario, which he called "plan A," of course, assumes that Stroll will have time to recover in time for his home season.

      "We are working on plan A, but if it doesn't work out, then we will have to act on plan B," Krak is quoted as saying by The Race. "Of course, we always knew that the Le Mans race would take place in June. But Aston Martin has priority for both of our reserve drivers, and if necessary, Drugovich or Vandoorne will have to withdraw from this race and go to the start of the stage in Canada. We'll see how events develop in the next few days, and then we'll make a decision."

      In theory, the team needs to decide this week, because the 24 Hours of Le Mans program starts next weekend: on June 7, a super marathon parade will take place in the center of Le Mans, and on Sunday, June 8, training will begin.