Why Aston Martin's F1 turnaround may be genuine despite Imola GP tyre gamble

A smart tyre choice helped Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll qualify a shock fifth and eighth for Imola's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. But how genuine is Aston Martin's upgraded performance?

Imola saw the introduction of Pirelli's new-for-2025 C6 compound, an even softer tyre than its C5, which is in turn designed to spice up the action on street circuits and avoid races in which one-stopping is the only sensible strategy.

It was a confident move by Pirelli to bring its softest compound to Imola, a track that has long needed some help to improve its usual processional racing. That confidence wasn't necessarily shared by all the teams, who went into the weekend nervous about how well the C6 compound would hold up in qualifying.

The tyres performed well in Friday practice, but as the pace ramped up into qualifying it became apparent that the C5, the designated medium this weekend, was at least as quick – if not quicker – over one lap, as well as more consistent. That is something Pirelli doesn't fully understand yet, as the data didn't indicate a noticeable drop-off in the final sector because of the C6 tyres degrading more quickly.

The tyre situation proved good news for Aston Martin, which had hedged its bets and ensured it kept aside an extra set of medium tyres at the expense of a second set of hards for the race. Alonso and Stroll both advanced to Q3 on mediums, and then had another set available to claim a surprise fifth and eighth.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Motorsport.com understands Aston's tyre choice was made before the weekend. Led by head of trackside engineering Mike Krack, the team stuck to its guns into Saturday afternoon's session.

"The whole weekend has been a little bit confusing [as to] which tyre was better, the medium or the soft," Alonso said. "We decided to do one soft and one medium in each of the sessions. Like this, we covered every possibility.

"I think everyone has two hards for tomorrow. We have only one, but that's the bet you need to make at [a certain] point. It's a difficult track on which to overtake and we made Saturday a little bit of a priority. Let's see if it pays off."

Aston Martin also introduced a comprehensive upgrade package this weekend, which debuted on Lance Stroll's car on Friday before being applied to Alonso's AMR25 as well from Saturday morning onwards, with the initial impressions from the team indicating a positive step.

But how much of Aston's qualifying success was down to its tyre choice? And how much of it is repeatable as the struggling Silverstone outfit aims to turn its 2025 season around after a rough start on the wrong side of a tight midfield?

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Alonso certainly feels the team's upgrades played a big role, because he felt competitive with both the medium and the soft.

"Maybe the times are a little bit too optimistic for the upgrade that we brought, but we're definitely not in the situation that we were in at the first race," he added. "In Miami we were still out [in] Q1. So, definitely it's a very good day for the team.

"Let's see the pace [in the race]. I think it's not as good as P5, so I'm ready to lose a couple of positions, but hopefully not too many."

When asked whether he could see light at the end of the tunnel after a patience-testing 18 months with the team, the two-time world champion said he was still more interested in what the outfit can achieve under 2026's new regulations: "I'm happy to be [in a position] to score a few points, but I want to be in Australia next year and win the race.

"We have had some negative experiences bringing upgrades and not understanding the package and not delivering the lap times that we were expecting. So, it seems that for sure [this upgrade] was a step forward."

Additional reporting by Frederik Hackbarth