Fernando Alonso said he will stonewall questions about Aston Martin’s performance on Fridays throughout the year after the first day of practice for the new season.
The two-times world champion has often been guarded in his comments after practice. Following today’s sessions he made clear his objection to being asked about his car, saying he learned “nothing, and if I learn something I will not tell you.”
F1 drivers rarely have scheduled sessions with print media on Fridays during regular race weekends but are required to speak to Formula One Management’s coverage team after the day’s running ends.
“We come here because it’s mandatory,” Alonso told the official F1 channel. “But there is nothing really to talk [about].
“We just jumped out of the car as usual. It will be 24 Fridays like now that you can ask anything, I will not answer at all.”
Alonso was eighth-quickest in the first session and 13th in the second, covering a total of 50 laps.
“I need to review everything now with my team and privately discuss what we did today,” he added. “We did laps, the car goes, the engine is alive, the brakes are okay, the gearbox is changing gears up and down, so we’re good.”
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Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell gave more insight into the team’s operations at the track on Friday following their work in pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit two weeks ago.
“Bahrain provided a good backdrop for doing lots of experiments, although the weather got in the way a little bit,” he said. “We’ve crunched all the data, worked out the best set-up for this track.
“This morning, we were doing a few experiments across the cars. We managed to run both [race] tyre compounds. I guess everybody lost a little bit of track time because of the red flags.”
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2025 Australian Grand Prix
- Lawson admits he was “too slow” after ending practice 17th
- ‘There’s 24 Fridays and you can ask me anything, I won’t answer’ – Alonso
- Leclerc leads McLarens as Bearman misses second practice
- Vasseur has no doubt Hamilton will be able to “perform soon” at Ferrari
- Live: 2025 Australian Grand Prix second practice
