Alonso concerned Aston Martin are ‘back in the midfield’ after team fail to score in Monaco

Fernando Alonso has expressed his concern after failing to score any points in Monaco on Sunday, the second straight race he hasn’t managed to finish in the top 10 after scoring in the opening six races.

His P11 was at least more encouraging than the 19th-place finish he delivered in Imola, but there are reasons to be concerned for Aston Martin heading into the middle part of the season.

READ MORE: Alpine will deal with Ocon and Gasly’s Monaco clash ‘behind closed doors’ insists Famin

The start of the season saw a clear split between the top teams – Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin – and the rest, but of late the field has closed up. RB are a regular feature in the top 10, and Haas have made forays into the points as well. Alpine are improving, and Williams are showing promise in the hands of Alex Albon.

As such, Aston Martin are finding points harder to come by of late, with Alonso and Lance Stroll failing to deliver any in the Principality. They did at least try an alternate strategy to mix things up, with Alonso playing the team game and backing up the pack to create a gap for Stroll to pit and chase after the last point on offer, but the Canadian hit the walls and punctured his tyre to end any chances of a point as he came home 14th.

“It was a tough race, unlucky again – the whole weekend it seemed like we were in the wrong moment always," said Alonso. "It was no different in the race, started on the hard tyre to go very long and then with the red flag we had to fit the medium and go to the end on the medium, which was a little bit unexpected.

“All in all difficult weekend, obviously you learn a lot from the difficulties so that’s what we try to do but tough one… [It’s] obviously not ideal, the current form, we seem to go back to the midfield instead of looking at the front runners.

READ MORE: How social media reacted to Leclerc's emotional win on home soil in Monaco

“But these things can change quickly, we saw with many other examples how quickly things can change, a good upgrade on the car and you can move five or six positions, so that is what we want to do on the next one and we work hard on that direction.”

Aston Martin haven’t confirmed when their next big upgrades will be arriving, the team having already brought parts in Japan and a larger package to Imola. The Japan package seemed to move them very much into the mix with Mercedes – but now the others seem to have pulled away again, thanks to upgrades of their own.

“We don’t seem to be super competitive right now so we have to sort some stuff out and find some pace in the car,” said Stroll after Monaco.

READ MORE: Ocon to take five-place grid drop at Canadian GP after dramatic first-lap clash with team mate Gasly in Monaco

Team Principal Mike Krack added: “It's been another tough day, compromised by qualifying outside of the points scoring positions on Saturday. Now is the time to regroup as a team, focus on improvements and come back stronger in Canada.”

Canada at least was a strong race for Aston Martin last season, with Alonso picking up a podium in Montreal – but on current form, repeating that result looks a tough ask for the Silverstone team.