Aston Martin's Regression Intensifies in Las Vegas

With the expected cold and a few scares due to the fully urban nature, the first day of the Las Vegas GP saw Mercedes as the benchmark cars on the grid. Lewis Hamilton secured the best time in both the early first session and the second, although narrowly ahead of Lando Norris in the latter, on a day marked by extremely low temperatures. The struggles to keep the cars on track without any off-road excursions or potential collisions meant many experienced the danger of 'graining', the effect where rubber debris from the tyres sticks to the wheels and, due to the cold, does not 'dissolve', causing a significant loss of grip.

Carlos Sainz, among others, explained it very graphically: «A complicated Thursday (it was already Friday in Spain, not here) in Las Vegas due to a tricky track with very little grip that gave us a strange feeling inside the car. For FP2 we tried something different but we are still not satisfied with our situation and we have to keep working on it.» The Spaniard, sixth, spent almost the entire second session on the tyre that seems to be the primary choice for the race, the medium. Verstappen, in fact, did not even attempt a good lap with the softs and dedicated the entire session to mediums that allowed him to hold back and not show his potential. Aware that he has a golden opportunity ahead and that having cars ahead of Norris brings him closer to the title, the Dutchman left the American circuit on Friday notably satisfied with what lies ahead.

While at the top they fought to show who could demonstrate greater performance and Verstappen bluffed in this constant poker game that is Formula 1, the one holding the worst cards by far in this final stretch of the year is Aston Martin. With the internal team in turmoil and Dan Fallows, the head of the failed AMR24 design, dismissed, the team is trying to solve performance issues with blind stabs that are getting worse.

The image worth a thousand words is captured in the braking zones. The 'bouncing', that uncomfortable bouncing that occurred especially over a year ago when this new regulation was introduced, has reappeared very visibly in the Aston Martins, thanks to a new floor with which they wanted to get closer to the top area. Now the car is not only slow but also uncomfortable in braking and practically undrivable in the fast sections of the circuits. The feeling that the situation is already irreparable in the three remaining races is evident.

So much so that Alonso has been testing «two philosophies» this Friday. «It hasn't been easy with the cold temperatures tonight, which made it difficult to keep the tyres in the right window. We have tried different setup philosophies of the car in both sessions, we have work to do overnight to find more performance,» he explained, while calling for calm by assuring that with the more conservative one, they had better feelings.

Aston Martin is trying to save face at the end of the season, although more by sensations than by results. The fifth place in the final standings is practically assured: they have 86 points compared to 49 of their closest pursuer, Alpine, who scored 35 of them in the memorable Brazilian GP where both their drivers made it to the podium. With Mercedes almost 300 points ahead, mathematically they cannot catch them, so the rest of the season is just a series of races that are superfluous to them. The development of the AMR25 is entering its final phase, with Adrian Newey already hovering over the new designs, so now they just have to wait and dutifully fulfill their obligations in the three remaining events. Fernando Alonso will draw on his almost endless patience while Stroll will try not to embarrass himself much more and, if possible, climb into the top 10, which is not so far away: he arrives in Las Vegas with 24 points in thirteenth position overall and has Hulkenberg within reach, with 31 points, in tenth.