Fernando Alonso Made to Curb Ambitions as Lando Norris & Lewis Hamilton Serve Brutal Reality Check in Brazil

Fernando Alonso scored six podiums in the first eight races of the season. One of the races where he didn’t score one (but would’ve very much liked to) was the Spanish GP, where he finished P7. Following that result, the Spaniard proclaimed, “This is the last race without a podium.” That was one of the most apt representations of “famous last words” if we’ve ever seen one. Because, imagine. P7 at the time was a bad result for Alonso and Aston Martin. Fast forward a few months and that’s one of the better results they could hope for. The Brazilian GP is no different.

Aston Martin may have won the winter development race for 2023. After finishing seventh in the Constructors’ Championship last season, it came into this year as the second-fastest car. Be that as it may, it lost the in-season development race, with Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari having leapfrogged the Silverstone outfit. That’s precisely what Alonso fears in Brazil.

A shock qualifying may not convert into a shock result for Fernando Alonso

Interlagos always comes with surprises. During qualifying on Friday, the surprise was the shock result for the starting grid, owing to a biblical storm and downpour midway through Q3. While seeing Max Verstappen on pole yet again is nothing we didn’t see coming, the second row is what caught everyone’s attention. For the first time in Aston Martin’s history, its drivers locked out the second row—Lance Stroll in P3 and Alonso in P4. 

Why is that shocking, you ask? After Aston Martin dropped off in the development race, it also consistently dropped outside the points, much less the podium places. Following a double DNF in Mexico and a DNF for Alonso in Austin, practically no one saw Aston Martin returning to the higher positions in the top 10 this season. Alonso & Co. would’ve looked to continue that qualifying form into Saturday, but they were just as unlucky as they were lucky on Friday. The two-time champion could only manage a P15 in the Shootout, and considering Aston’s race simulation pace, he ideally shouldn’t have made too much progress in the Sprint. But if anything, Alonso is known to defy the odds.

After starting in P15, he crossed the line in P11, and he did it in style, pulling off spectacular overtakes one after the other. The Sprint was like Alonso’s show. Seeing positive signs, Alonso gave his verdict on Sunday’s race. “It was a fun race. A lot of action, a lot of wheel-to-wheel racing. So yeah, good fun. Unfortunately no points. But we had a lot of pace today so it’s a good sign for tomorrow,” he said. But he didn’t get too ahead of himself and gave his team a reality check, saying, “I think, yeah, that could be possible if we execute a perfect race. I think Mercedes is still very fast, and Lando [Norris] as well. So they will catch [us] eventually, but we’ll try to execute a good race. No mistakes. If it’s a podium, fantastic. If it’s a top-five, we’ll take it.”

Read More: “We Know What We Are Doing”: Fernando Alonso Lauds Aston Martin’s Genius After Raging Over Red Bull Link

Alonso may not be too optimistic about his chances in the Brazilian GP, but he sure is happy with the progress Aston Martin has made in the past few weeks.

Alonso praised his team after qualifying at the Brazilian GP

A couple of races ago, Aston Martin introduced a new set of upgrades. A couple of races ago, McLaren overtook the Silverstone squad for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship. Considering how well McLaren has been doing, and Aston Martin hasn’t, it may have seemed like all hope was lost for this season. But turns out, Alonso is not just confident about this season, but also about what’s to come from his team.

After the stellar qualifying on Friday, Alonso was only appreciative of his team. He said, “I think the last two Grand Prix we were [a little bit about] experimenting and we were starting from the pit lane, all these kinds of things. So we needed a nice result here in Brazil, for both cars to give back some hope to the team. [It’s] proof that we understood a few things, and we are quite competitive. So this proves that we know what are doing, and I am happy with that.”

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What do you think Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll can covert their second-row starts into during the Brazilian GP?