Fernando Alonso: Friday will be a very important day

      The Aston Martin team prepared a series of technical updates for the UK round of the season, their home race, including a redesigned floor and some bodywork details of the car. Aston Martin team leader Andy Cowell emphasized that this is the final set of upgrades for the AMR25, and Fernando Alonso is fully intent on making the most of this situation to score points at Silverstone.

      "The updates are not of a large-scale nature, unlike those introduced in Imola," said the Spanish newspaper Marca quoting Aston Martin driver. "It’s a slightly upgraded floor and nothing particularly noticeable else. But we’re happy with everything and hope to extract as much as possible from the new features."

      During the practice sessions, we need to test everything, work on a combined program, try different configurations of the car, and approaches to settings. Friday will be a very important day.

      If we manage to score some points at Silverstone, we can consider the weekend a great success. I don’t think we’re aiming for anything more, since the top four teams are much ahead of everyone else, and it seems unlikely we can catch them in the remaining races of the season.

      We don’t have many new parts, and a higher result is only possible if something else happens. Even seventh place can’t be called a normal result, but if we can fight for 9th or 10th, that would already be good."

      Fernando Alonso also humorously commented on a memorable incident that many remember from the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, when the two-time world champion had to fend off attacks from Gabriele Bortoleto, Sauber’s driver and a season debutant represented by A14 Management, Alonso’s management company:

      “He is the best driver of his generation. But he still finished behind me! I crossed the finish line before him, and that gave me satisfaction! In Austria, our pace wasn’t high enough to score points, but we understood how to act, made a few right decisions, and it worked.”