Fernando Alonso’s Bullish Hopes Dashed With a Reality Check on Aston Martin’s Achilles Heel in 2023

After a disappointing campaign last year, Aston Martin emerged as a phenomenon in 2023. Particularly Fernando Alonso, who has in the first 5 races, stood on the podium 4 times. In each of those races, the Spaniard grabbed the P3. However, knowing how competitive he is and always pushes himself and his teams for excellence, nothing lower than the top podium step would satisfy him. Despite that, he has shown patience and believes there are certain circuits that will favor him and the AMR23. However, a brutal reality check could put a dampener on those dreams.

Aston Martin’s newfound success is not an out-of-the-blue affair, though. Ever since rebranding the team from Racing Point to Aston Martin, team owner Lawrence Stroll talked about working to take his team to the challenger’s spot in 5 years. That wasn’t just an ambitious statement put out to please the fans. The Canadian business tycoon has invested close to $240 million to raise a new state-of-the-art facility in Silverstone. Moreover, he hired men like Dan Fallows, who once used to be Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics. Alonso’s addition to the team is another step in that direction.

Aston Martin’s big weakness exposed

Max Verstappen failed to set any timing in Q3 before Charles Leclerc crashed into the barriers and caused red flags. The stewards eventually called off the session which only had 1 minute 36 seconds left. That meant that the Dutchman would start the race in P9 while his teammate Sergio Perez bagged the pole position. Alonso stood by his side in front of the grid when the race started but did not have enough race pace to get ahead of him. Eventually, when Verstappen made his way ahead during the race, the Asturian did not have enough to defend his position.

Pointing to this problem in a recent episode of Lift The Lid podcast, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert said, “I would say the weakness is the qualifying. And I think we (referring to his co-host Billy Monger) said this right at the very very first races in Bahrain that if they can get that sorted, then they’d put themselves in a much much better position.”

“Yes, he (Alonso) started second on the grid which was brilliant. But once again, the actual race pace is still not able to attack the Red Bull. But then there’s that question mark, if he said that a power sort of limited track is something that will favor us, you’re still not able to race them anyway.”

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Herbert believes that even on a track like Monaco, Red Bull will arrive with an advantage. The only possibility he feels Aston Martin can challenge them is if they have some big upgrades in the pipeline, which of course, could be the reason behind Alonso’s confidence.

 Fernando Alonso takes a jab at Ferrari

Another reason behind Alonso’s confidence is that he, like many others, does not see Ferrari as a serious title contender in 2023. The Prancing Horse is once again facing issues with consistency. After grabbing podium finishes in Sprint as well as the Main Race in Baku, the team went to its depressing self once again in Miami.

Speaking with Danica Patrick during the post-race interview, Alonso said, “When I was in Ferrari, we were always close to them (talking about Mercedes during their dominant years), 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.”

Watch This Story: Will Fernando Alonso & Aston Martin Be a Top F1 Championship Contender Soon?

F1 is currently on a one-week hiatus before the circus moves to Imola. Mercedes has a big set of upgrades ready to hit the tarmac. Do you think Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso should be worried?