Otmar Szafnauer came to the forefront of controversy after Fernando Alonso get on the podium in his first race with Aston Martin come back again referring to his age.
The disagreements between the double world champion of Formula 1 and the French team were latent in the second half of the season, and already dressed in Enstone green, they didn’t miss the opportunity to “stir up” their former driver.
Of course, Romanian does not hide from reality and after the Bahrain Grand Prix recognized the superiority of Aston Martin at the start of the season… although always with a ‘but’.
“Congratulations to them, we want to beat them and we will do our best to get closer. The Bahrain race was not normal for us, normally we don’t make operational mistakes and also Pierre (Gasly) started last. I think Lance (Stroll) was right in front of us, but I still don’t know if in a normal race we can beat them. we are going to think, we are not where we want“Szafnauer explained.
The Alpine boss, who was previously at Silverstone, compared Aston Martin to Force India in 2014.
“To be fair they were always a good and efficient team. The Mercedes wind tunnel is very good and I don’t think sharing it is a penalty because otherwise people won’t be sharing it. Whether you have your own or you share it, there is no significant difference. Congratulations to them. But Force India was the exact same team in 2014, we were fourth and had good race pace“, he pointed.
Still, he bows his head and acknowledges that the Briton’s evolution is far from his own, despite both sharing a similar goal of winning in 100 races (two years ago).
“Congratulations to Aston (Martin) for taking such a big step, but we have to beat them too and we have to see how close we are to pole position and race pace compared to last year. we need is to get closer every year. Aston (Martin) has made huge progress and we also need to“, he thought.
On the grotesque lived in Sakhir with the triple penalty and subsequent retirement of Esteban Oconthe Romanian assures that “These are operational mistakes and we don’t have to make them again.”
“The penalty on the grid is that I was out of position at the start. Then there was a second left at the ‘pit-stop’ before we started working on the car. We have a sound system in the headphones of the mechanics who are went ahead by four hundredths The third, speeding. We have a counter on the limiter and I think it started half a meter late.“, installed.