Alonso is aware that if they want to keep their current position, they will need to compete closely with Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari.
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Fernando Alonso believes that despite their strong start to the season, Aston Martin must maintain their composure. The Spaniard anticipates that the standings will change a little bit over the following races as teams start to introduce significant upgrade packages. Aston Martin, which is based in Silverstone, is currently 58 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship after Alonso finished third in each of the season’s first three races. Alonso has adapted quickly to life at Aston Martin.
Speaking after the Australian Grand Prix, Alonso said: “I think Mercedes, they’ve also been strong in Jeddah, to be honest. I was within one tenth of George [Russell], fighting to get this extra five seconds or whatever at the end, so it was very, very close. It seems that qualifying is quite important now, because race pace is very similar, and I think now we enter into a part of the season that is going to be very interesting – which team is developing the car faster?”
The performance of Aston Martin comes just a few months after they finished the 2022 season in seventh place overall. Alonso is aware that if they want to keep their current position, they will need to compete closely with Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari, the teams that won the championship.
“I think the first three races being away from Europe, it’s difficult to bring upgrades and things like that. But from now on, maybe we see the level of the teams changing a little bit, race-by-race, depending on who brings an upgrade that is good enough. For us, it’s all happy days at the moment. We never expected to be on the podium, maybe even throughout the season, and in three races we have three.”
Christian Horner, the head of the Red Bull Team, admits he does not know how long Max Verstappen’s love of racing will keep the Dutch driver competing. Verstappen is a fellow double world champion like Fernando Alonso, but Horner does not anticipate Verstappen to race into his 40s. Verstappen made his Formula One debut for Toro Rosso in 2015 when he was just 17 years old, becoming the sport’s youngest ever starter. The Dutch driver, who is now 25 years old, is currently in his ninth season of competition. Along with his former teammate Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen, he is now the sixth-most experienced driver on the starting grid.
“Max is his own man, and he is very strong in his opinions and his outlook on what he wants to do with his life,” Hroner said as per Sky. “I don’t see him being a Fernando Alonso and still racing at 41 or 42 years of age, or maybe not in Formula 1. But what his love and passion is, is racing, and if he is not racing on track at the moment, he is driving in the virtual world.”
“He is driving GT cars for fun, and his passion is just driving and racing, and while that burns within him, he is going to keep going. But how long that burns for? It’s each individual’s own journey [and] they’ve got to find that out for themselves.”
