Former F1 champion's Bahrain GP performance 'painful' to watch

Fernando Alonso's performance at last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix has been branded 'painful' to watch by an ex-Formula 1 star.

The Aston Martin star endured a miserable few days in Sakhir, finishing 15th on race day after failing to make it out of Q2 on Saturday.

It was the fourth successive grand prix in which the Spaniard has failed to score a point, as his dreadful start to the season continued.

And former McLaren driver Pedro de la Rosa - who is now an ambassador for Aston Martin - has admitted it was hard to see his compatriot struggle so badly.

"It was painful to see the drivers [Alonso and Lance Stroll] fighting like this and losing so many positions," he told DAZN, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.

"But it is what it is, it's reality. It's not that we had a bad race or that it was poorly executed. The team executed the strategy well and the opportunities we had, but that's how the car really performed."

Can Alonso get season up and running in Saudi?

De la Rosa, however, praised the two-time world champion's efforts to maximise the car's potential, and is optimistic over his chances of enjoying better luck at this weekend's Saudi Arabia GP.

"Alonso qualified better [than the car could]," he said. "Fernando puts the car where it shouldn't be.

"And on this circuit, which isn't Suzuka [where overtaking wasn't possible], the race will put you where your car is, based on your car's actual performance.

"The car's performance on this type of slow-corner circuit is poor, and our main objective is to improve the car's handling of these types of corners.

"Fortunately, there are fewer and faster corners of this type in Jeddah, but that's no excuse."

As things stand, Alonso is one of just four drivers yet to get off the mark in 2025, and with team-mate Stroll only collecting 10 points to date, the team stand little chance of improving on last season's fifth-place finish in the constructors' standings.

Attention, as Alonso has previously hinted, appears to be on being competitive in 2026, when Aston Martin will hope to see the influence of design guru Adrian Newey bear fruit.

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