Alonso: We arrived in Monza with moderate expectations.

      Fernando Alonso preferred to refrain from making predictions for the upcoming Italian Grand Prix, although he suggested that the high-speed Monza circuit does not suit the Aston Martin car very well.

      Fernando Alonso: “We’ll see how our car will work this weekend. We arrived in Monza with somewhat more modest expectations, because the last high-speed circuit where you need to set cars up for low downforce was Spa, and we weren’t very quick there.

      But since that race we’ve made a number of changes both to the chassis settings and to our approaches to a race weekend, so we hope we can perform more confidently here. In theory Monza is different from the tracks where the last two races took place.

      In any case our car is much better now than it was at the start of the season. Back then our car didn’t allow us to fight for top-ten positions at all, and I only scored my first points at the ninth round. But it seems that now we’re capable of fighting in the midfield and regularly scoring points.

      Clearly, the car has become a completely different machine; the AMR25’s aerodynamic package has become more effective, although there hasn’t been much change in the suspension — apart from the tweaks we make to the set-up each weekend. But the aero package works more consistently and the car is much easier to drive.

      There will still be races before the end of the season on circuits whose characteristics are comparable to Budapest — perhaps Singapore, maybe Brazil. However, this year we’ve been surprised more than once — sometimes pleasantly, sometimes the opposite — so we don’t pin our hopes only on those two races.

      We’re determined to give our maximum in Monza, even if we expect difficulties here. We’ll do the points tallying after the season finale in Abu Dhabi.”

      It’s also worth quoting the two-time world champion’s comments on the idea put forward by Stefano Domenicali that it might make sense to discuss a proposal to shorten race durations.

      “I don’t think that’s a problem for our sport,” Fernando said. “Probably such changes aren’t necessary. Although Stefano knows better, and I believe Formula 1 is in good hands. On the other hand, football matches also last quite a long time, and when I sit in front of the TV I can’t say I watch the game attentively for all 90 minutes. At times I might go to the kitchen and then come back, but nobody talks about shortening matches to 60 minutes.

      So that’s a societal problem, a problem of the younger generation, not Formula 1. I don’t think anything should be changed in that regard.”