Ferrari may have posed little threat to Red Bull’s dominance in 2022, but they were the second-best team on the grid. Many believed the Maranello-based team would come back stronger to stop the Austrian team’s juggernaut, but the reality in 2023 turned out to be quite different. Forget about challenging for the top spot, the team is struggling to keep it’s both drivers on the track until the end of the races. The biggest beneficiary of their misery is Aston Martin, a team that has surprised everyone. The Silverstone-based team’s boss recently took a dig at Ferrari while exposing their weakness.
After three races of no podium finishes, Charles Leclerc finally broke the deadlock in Azerbaijan. The Monegasque won not one but two podium places courtesy of a great run in Sprint and the Main Race. Leclerc also landed the pole positions for each of the qualifyings for those races. Many believed that result to be the platform for Ferrari to build on, but the very next race in Miami brought the team back to its abysmal run.
Aston Martin’s boss takes a dig at Ferrari
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In every race where Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failed to land a podium, Fernando Alonso made the most of it. The Spaniard now has 4 podium finishes from the 5 races, a run that has reintroduced the F1 fans to his brilliance. Team Principal Mike Krack, however, is wary of the Prancing Horse’s pace. However, while lauding them, he also took a dig at their situation.
“We mustn’t forget that they have always been fast, right from the first race. But they always had problems,” Krack said while speaking with Motorsport-total recently. [Translated using Google]
“Charles was in third position in Bahrain when he retired and we benefited from that. There was a grid penalty in Jeddah. In Australia, there was the accident at turn 1.”
Aware of their ever-looming threat, though, Krack told, “They have never been slow.”
Seems like taking digs at Ferrari has kind of become a thing with the Aston Martin crew. Alonso too did not hold back while speaking after the conclusion of the Miami GP.
Fernando Alonso reminds Ferrari about their consistent past
Mercedes ruled the F1 world for 8 years straight, ever since the start of the hybrid engine era. Ferrari came close to challenging them in some of those seasons. The man who drove for them back then was Alonso himself. He recalled that time while speaking with Danica Patrick after landing the P3 finish in Miami.
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He told, “When I was in Ferrari, we were always close to them (talking about Mercedes), and we never made a mistake; we fought for the World Championship for three of the four years until the last race, thanks to our consistency.”
“Fortunately for us (talking about present times), there is a little more inconsistency in Ferrari now, and we make more points than them.”
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