What Aston Martin will reconsider after Alonso's Canada exit

Aston Martin thinks it may have gone a step too far with its reclined seat positioning this year in the wake of Fernando Alonso's retirement from Formula 1's Canadian Grand Prix.

Alonso ran as high as 10th place in the early stages of the Montreal race, before steadily slipping down the order and then eventually pulling into the pitlane to retire on lap 24.

The two-time F1 champion felt he could not carry on because he was too uncomfortable in his seat, which was increasingly hurting him.

Speaking afterwards, Alonso said: "I felt more and more uncomfortable with the laps. The position doesn't feel the right one and we were obviously out of the points, quite far from the points and no threat of rain anymore. So we decided to stop the pain."

While such driver discomfort can sometimes be the result of a made-to-measure seat fit not being perfect, Alonso's Aston Martin issue appears to be more closely related to a fundamental design choice.

According to chief trackside officer Mike Krack, the drivers' positioning has changed for this year and they have been given a more reclined stance in the car.

This will have been triggered by a desire to both lower the centre of gravity but also minimise aerodynamic influence of having the drivers' helmets too high up in airflow.

However, the step the team has made has left Alonso with an uncomfortable seating position that gets worse the longer he runs.

The troubles may only have flared up so much now because the Aston Martin is more reliable and therefore able to run more consistently.

Krack explained that what Alonso was facing was linked to being too far reclined in the AMR26 cockpit.

"He has been uncomfortable for a while - and never to the point where it was really, like, a show-stopper," said Krack, when asked by The Race about what was causing the seat problems. "It's like a pressure point where you feel that it gets worse and worse.

"I think we need to reconsider, a little bit, the positioning. You try with these cars to be as low as you can - and when you look at how the drivers used to sit over the last years, it goes more and more and more into a lying position.

"Maybe we have gone a step too far, but it's something we will need to check."

While Aston Martin has tried to make modifications to the seat at grands prix, including on Saturday night in Canada, a proper solution may require an adjusted position in the next week.

Alonso said that efforts would revolve around getting a new seat ready for the next race in Monaco at the start of June, with Krack suggesting Aston Martin may need to go back to a previous design.

"I think we need to reconsider maybe a little bit and go a little bit back to how we have been in the past," he said.