“Fernando Alonso Is Retiring”: Faith in Lawrence Stroll’s $235,000,000 Project Comes Crashing Down as Resurfacing of Dream Leaves Fans Suspicious

“Aston Martin seems to have managed to make the car slower and slower with every upgrade that they’ve brought,” said Lando Norris. Aston Martin’s season couldn’t have been summed up better. The Silverstone outfit started the season as Red Bull’s closest competitor. At the start of the season, everyone expected Fernando Alonso to be the one to break Red Bull’s winning streak. At the start of the season, Alonso was performing like a 25-year-old and not like the 42-year-old he is. Apart from Max Verstappen, he was setting the standard. Racing in your 40s? Alonso made it look like a piece of cake, but has he finally had enough? Could he be close to retirement?

Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll brought the manufacturer into the sport in 2021. Following his $235 million investment in the brand in 2020, he rebranded Racing Point to Aston Martin. For two seasons, the team wasn’t doing too well. But in 2023, they welcomed Alonso, and it seemed like Aston was turning over a new leaf. From finishing the 2022 campaign in P7, the team came into 2023 as the second-fastest car, and Alonso made the most of it.

Aston’s development aided by the $300 million Lawrence Stroll invested in a new factory, the AMR23 was the car to beat (because Red Bull was too far ahead). Alonso raked in podium after podium, but the celebrations didn’t last long. While Aston may have made leaps and bounds in the winter development race, it faltered in the 2023 development race. 

Read More: Despite 0 Wins in 10 Years, Fernando Alonso Boasts of Special Upgrade to Put Down 25 Y.O. F1 Champ

Following a string of podiums before the Spanish GP, Alonso couldn’t achieve a top-three finish at his home race. After the race, he said, “This is the last race without a podium.” If only he knew what was to come for Aston Martin. In the following 12 races post Barcelona, the Spaniard has got only 2 podiums! With another shocker of an outing at the Mexican GP, fans feel the two-time champion has had enough.

Fernando Alonso made the “worst self-curse in history”

As Lando Norris said, Aston Martin has gone backward with the upgrades it’s introduced. At the US GP, the Silverstone team brought big upgrades, only for Alonso to ask the team to change the car back to Qatar specifications. In Mexico—a track that should’ve suited Aston—Sunday ended with a double DNF. A Twitter (now X) user posted Alonso’s statement after the Spanish GP and wrote, “Alonso is retiring! He is OUT! And we know what that means… #F1 #MexicoGP”

Other users didn’t wait to chime in, giving their own thoughts on the subject. Considering Alonso has stood on the podium only twice since Spain—in Canada and Zandvoort—Alonso’s statement basically applies every weekend.

McLaren got better with every upgrade while Aston got worse. Echoing Norris’ comment, another user expressed their bafflement over the situation.

With Alonso’s retirement suspicious, what’s also weird is the extreme rate at which the Silverstone outfit has fallen down the order in 2023.

Could it have been the FIA’s flexi-wing clamp-down that affected Aston Martin so much?

Whether or not Alonso’s considering retirement, he seems to have jinxed his entire season with his comment after the Spanish GP.

Considering how much Lawrence Stroll invested in the team, could Alonso be the reason it’s all gone wrong after going so right at the beginning?

If fans didn’t start losing faith in Aston Martin when its downfall started, the Mexican GP (and the races that have preceded it recently) would’ve given them a reason to. Do you think there’s any chance Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso could invert their trajectory in 2024 or is that too big an ask?

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