Despite “Expensive” Pressure From Red Bull, Fernando Alonso Aims for “Special” 33rd Victory in 2024

Red Bull has been the team to beat since the start of the new regulations in 2022. After Max Verstappen’s dominant 2nd championship victory, it looked like none of the teams could catch up to them. However, Aston Martin surprised everyone at the pre-season test in 2023 with a rather quick car. They were the closest team to Red Bull for a better part of the first half of the season. And this season, we’re expecting that the field will bunch up even more, as we’re heading into the third season in the current regulations. Fernando Alonso feels that it will take everything Aston Martin has to aim for their first win in 2024.

We saw how McLaren turned the 2023 season on its head when it came up with the upgrade package in Austria. Lando Norris, who got the upgrade first, was instantly in the mix for the podium battle, a far cry from their struggles in past races. The same was true for Oscar Piastri when he got the upgrade. Both McLaren drivers were consistently challenging for podiums, a clear sign of the field getting closer. And so, Fernando Alonso believes that it will not only be a tough battle on the track but also an “expensive” development battle off the track if he is to take his elusive 33rd win.

Fernando Alonso wants to score the first win for Aston Martin

With Aston Martin being quick off the blocks in 2023, the Spaniard managed to score 6 of his 8 podiums in the first eight races. However, due to a wrong decision in the development trajectory, Aston Martin fell off the pace, which was capitalized by Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari to quickly drop the Silverstone-based team to 5th in the constructors. In a recent conversation with F1 journalist Lawerence Barretto, Alonso laid out the team’s expectations going into the 2024 season.

When Barretto asked if he’s optimistic to be fighting for podiums and even race wins more consistently this year, Fernando Alonso responded, “I hope so, I think it’s going to be a very very tight field and very expensive this time to make a difference. I think we have McLaren, we have Ferrari, we have Red Bull, and Mercedes, which within two or three tenths you can be fighting for the podium or out of the top 10.”

“So I think, to be into that fight is going to be very demanding for any team including us. But yeah, we want to be regular in the points. We want to be fighting for podiums as we did last year with eight podiums and I would love to have the first win for Aston Martin, the first win in green. It will be special and I hope I can be behind that wheel.“

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While Alonso remains hopeful for a race win, Aston’s technical director feels they are not there just yet.

Dan Fallows believes Red Bull will be beatable in 2024

Aston Martin launched their 2024 challenger, AMR24, on Monday. And according to technical director, Dan Fallows, there will be more opportunities in 2024 to beat Red Bull compared to last season where Max Verstappen just ran away with race wins after race wins.

According to a recent report from Autosport, Fallows emphasized that with little room to change the car drastically, teams are now finding performance gains in smaller, more intricate aspects of the car’s design, like the floor and other components. While he acknowledged that Aston Martin might not have the car to challenge for race wins just yet, he is optimistic that other teams will fight for wins more often than not.

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Can Fernando Alonso claim his 33rd win in Formula 1 against the odds? Share your predictions down below in the comments.