Aston Martin’s start to the 2023 season was nothing less than a surprise. It seemed as if James Bond himself stole some secret formula from Red Bull and gave it to Aston Martin. How else can someone explain a backmarker team from 2022 contending regularly for podiums? Seems like Fernando Alonso himself didn’t believe in Aston Martin when he arrived at the Silverstone-based team as he takes a veiled dig at the Green team. 

Aston Martin finished the 2022 season in 7th after a year full of struggles with the new regulation. Dan Fallows was poached from Red Bull over the winter. Yet, nobody expected Aston Martin to be up there with the Top Teams. While Fernando Alonso realized the potential with Aston Martin for a brighter future, even he didn’t expect to score as many podiums as he did in 2023. 

Fernando Alonso scored a total of 8 podiums during the 2023 campaign and finished the season 4th in the constructors’ championship with a total of 206 points. In a recent interview with AMuS, Alonso opened up about his expectations before moving to the Silverstone team. While doing so, he secretly also took a hit at Aston Martin for having an uncompetitive car in 2022, which led to his belief of underwhelming expectations for 2023.

According to AMuS, Fernando Alonso said, “If I’m honest then I expected myself in the points ranks at 80 percent of the races, at 50 to 60 percent in Q3 and with luck maybe once on the podium. With two Red Bulls, two Mercedes, and two Ferrari, a place in the top 3 seemed to me like a Mission Impossible.”

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2024 comes as an opportunity for Alonso to build on the 2023 momentum. With the new factory in place and the wind tunnel coming online next year, things only look positive for the Green Team. 

“Focus more on Performance”: Fernando Alonso looks forward to 2024

Fernando Alonso moved ships to Aston Martin after finishing the 2022 season with Alpine. It’s not easy for a driver to jump into a new team and car and start performing instantly. Every team has its own philosophy for a car and the driver has to understand and get used to it. Yet, Alonso was in 2023. And now being accustomed to the team, will only push himself more in 2024.

Fernando Alonso said, “This being my second year with the team will help. I don’t need to do many of the things I had to do at the start of this year. Everything will just be easier. We can focus more on performance and preparation for the first couple of races right from day one. We also have a very strong baseline to work with from 2023. When we arrive at a race, the work we do will be an optimization of what we did this year.”

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