Fernando Alonso has ‘mixed feelings’ despite ending F1 points drought

Fernando Alonso says ending his F1 2025 points drought was a relief but still came away from the Spanish Grand Prix not fully satisfied.

The two-time world champion had an action-packed run to ninth as he finished inside the top-10 at the ninth attempt this season in front of his home crowd at Barcelona.

Alonso reached Q3 and was inside the top-10 until a rare error resulted in a trip through the gravel which cost him two positions. The Spaniard battled back to P10, which became ninth when Max Verstappen received a post-race penalty.

Despite finally returning to the points, Alonso said Aston Martin have improvements to make.

“Yeah, mixed feelings,” Alonso said. “Obviously happy for the points. P9 is the first two points of the championship and finally we avoid the question next Thursday if that will be the weekend.

“I was expecting a little bit more probably from the race. I felt more competitive in qualifying than in the race. We had a lot of front tyre degradation, so the front left was done by seven laps into the stint.

“And then we lacked top speed, so on the straights we were losing a lot. I didn't make any single overtake on the DRS. They were all made in Turn 3 on the outside, which is not a normal place to overtake, but we have to invent these kinds of moves.

“Also in Imola I was out of Turn 7 when I made three overtakings in the last few laps. So we need to solve this situation and start overtaking on the straight with the DRS like everyone does.”

Alonso has urged Aston Martin to improve their straight-line speed.

“It's only for us because everyone is overtaking, so we need to improve a little bit our straight line speed and also the degradation,” he said.

“As I said, Saturdays are quite competitive and Sundays we seem to take a step back. So happy for today for sure, first points, good Safety Car at the end, good timing and things.

“But if we go back on Thursday and we redo the weekend, we need to change something on the car to be a little bit more Sunday-biased than Saturday.”

Points now ‘mandatory’ for Aston Martin

Alonso’s run to P9 marked the first time Aston Martin have scored points since Lance Stroll finished sixth and ninth at the opening two rounds.

While the result boosted Aston Martin’s points tally, Nico Hulkenberg’s outstanding fifth place finish at Barcelona has brought Sauber level on points with the Silverstone-based squad.

Aston Martin have actually slipped to ninth courtesy of Hulkenberg’s shock P5 and are just five points clear of bottom outfit Alpine.

Alonso said top-10 finishes are now a must every weekend for Aston Martin.

“It’s just to free a little bit of pressure on everyone's shoulders in the team and try to get some consistency into Q3,” Alonso said.

“This was the third consecutive race on Q3, this is the first point, so if we build something that you are constantly in the top 10 on Saturdays and Sundays, definitely it will help everyone.

“We need to score points, also with Sauber scoring a lot of points today, it's mandatory for us that we score points every weekend or every two weekends, so we need to raise the level.”