Fernando Alonso: There will be no time to rest.

      "Now it's time to go home and rest... Although resting won't be possible," said Fernando Alonso after the Japanese Grand Prix, the first race of the season in which he managed to finish.

      In the current almost catastrophic situation, Aston Martin can already consider this a kind of achievement, especially since Lance Stroll, Alonso's teammate, once again retired due to technical issues.

      But Fernando has his own reason to be happy: he doubts that he will be able to rest in the coming weeks because shortly before the race in Suzuka, his first child was born, and a new important stage in the life of the two-time world champion begins. However, on the track, everything remains largely unchanged; the AMR26 car lacked pace throughout the weekend, and in the end, Alonso managed to finish in 18th place, wedging himself between two Cadillac drivers.

      "We have a lot of tasks to solve, and one of them was to bring the race to the finish," Alonso commented on the Spanish TV channel DAZN. "We didn't manage to do this in Australia and China, and even in testing, we couldn't cover a normal distance. But at least in front of the Japanese fans, we managed to finish, tried to gather some information, and now all of this needs to be analyzed.

      The pace was very poor all weekend, and it didn't improve in the race, so we still need to gradually improve in all areas. The vibrations haven't disappeared, although they may have become slightly less than in previous races. Their level will likely change depending on the track.

      It was not easy to drive, but at least the level of vibrations was tolerable and allowed us to finish. Overall, my race went calmly, even quite boring, but the task was to provide our engineers with feedback. The team must have everything necessary to find solutions."

      Of course, Alonso's opinion is shared by Mike Crack, the racing director of Aston Martin F1: "It's clear that the atmosphere in the team is far from festive. Our modest goal for this race was for both cars to finish, but only one managed to do so. This is already a small step forward, but the list of tasks to solve is very long.

      The team cannot act as if it is engaging in self-destruction. The situation is complicated, but we must focus on the positive aspects, and there have been some in recent months. Finishing the race should be the norm, and although there is not much to celebrate, we must admit that we are currently in such a position.

      We understand that we need to move forward in very big steps, and during the upcoming April break, we will try to take the first such step. It's not just about the engine – our car struggles with high-speed corners, and the weight of the AMR26 chassis exceeds the allowable minimum. We will have to work hard, but even if we solve these problems, the efficiency of the Honda power units also leaves much to be desired."