Martin Brundle stunned by one F1 team this season, their pace has reduced ‘dramatically’

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The Mexico City Grand Prix was another disappointing outing for Aston Martin and Martin Brundle cannot understand what’s going on at the team right now.

Brundle was commentating alongside David Croft for Sky Sports F1 (29/10 8:22pm) as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll once again struggled.

Imagining what Alonso was saying in his race helmet after missing out on Q3 on Saturday afternoon isn’t worth thinking about.

After seeing his teammate once again fail to get out of the first qualifying session, he couldn’t extract enough pace out of his car to join the top-ten shootout.

Things didn’t improve during the race, with Alonso drifting backwards and even seeing Lance Stroll overtake him after starting from the pit lane.

The legendary Spaniard ended up retiring before the end of the race with Stroll joining him in the garage before the end of the race.

Stroll was particularly unlucky as although he was unlikely to score any points, he was working his way through the back markers before being spun by Valtteri Bottas in the stadium section of the track.

Martin Brundle has admitted that Aston Martin’s pace in Mexico and development throughout the season has made no sense.

They’ve taken some backwards steps in development and must now concentrate on starting 2024 in the same manner they began this season.

Brundle confused by Aston Martin in Mexico

Speaking about the British-based team, David Croft said: “Aston Martin, I just get the impression they’ve given up on that fourth place in the championship now and whatever they’re doing between now and the end of the season is all for next year with next year in mind.

“They’re trying to find a development path that can take them back to where they started this year.

Martin Brundle added: “It’s bizarre though, isn’t it? They had a race-winning car at the start of the season it seems and Fernando [Alonso] was saying, I’m going to win a race this season’ and they’ve just fallen off the pace dramatically.”

Brundle’s thoughts on Aston Martin were echoed by Alonso in Mexico who even admitted his teammate may have got the better of him this weekend.

He said: “It seems that we are on the edge always on the grip. And we’ve been slow in every session. So it’s not a bad qualifying or anything like that.

“We have been struggling the whole weekend. So yeah, tricky. We need to work all together to get back to our best level, which is obviously not the one we are showing.

“This weekend has been particularly difficult for me.

“I don’t know, maybe Lance was a little bit more confident this weekend, but I was not.”

Damon Hill has suggested that Alonso is still a role model for some of the less experienced drivers on the grid.

While he is still a phenomenal driver, right now just scoring points appears to be enough of a challenge which will be so frustrating when he was trying to win races just a few months ago.