Alonso's one-stop masterclass rescued Aston Martin at a dismal Dutch GP, says Steiner

Fernando Alonso single-handedly salvaged Aston Martin’s Dutch Grand Prix weekend with a one-stop strategy that earned ninth place at Zandvoort, and former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes the car had little to do with it. The result tripled Aston Martin’s points tally for the season to three — every one of them scored by Alonso.

Aston Martin had arrived in the Netherlands with genuine optimism, carrying a new Honda power unit upgrade on top of the B-spec chassis introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The weekend quickly unravelled, however. Alonso and Lance Stroll finished 17th and 18th in the sprint race and qualified 19th and 18th respectively for the grand prix. Stroll then retired from the main race after sustaining damage on a chaotic opening lap that also claimed Max Verstappen.

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner was blunt about what he witnessed before Sunday’s race. “After what I saw on Friday and Saturday in sprint qualifying and the sprint, I was like, ‘Wow, I think we overreacted a little bit to their resurgence,’” he said. “This was a Fernando special here, doing it with one stop. That saved them. He could keep a decent pace, and what helps them at the moment is that there are really now three backmarker teams which are far off everyone.”

Alonso was more measured in his own assessment, acknowledging the upgrades while flagging the work still to be done. “In general, we’re still not in the place we want to be in terms of driveability. The downshifts and engine braking seem a little bit random, corner by corner,” the two-time world champion said. “So we still need to fine-tune it and, with the deficit on power, we still lose a lot on the straights. So now that we are more or less competitive in the corners, we need to improve that.”

The 43-year-old was careful not to place undue pressure on Honda, adding: “We need to give time to Honda as well to figure out what the problem is and where to fix it. So I’m happy, I’m relaxed. I trust both Silverstone and Sakura.”

Aston Martin currently sits tenth and last in the constructors’ championship on three points, while Alonso is 19th in the drivers’ standings. With Stroll yet to score, the team’s entire season rests on the Spaniard’s ability to extract results the car’s raw pace does not obviously support.