Prior to his 2023 move, Fernando Alonso wasted little time in starting his long-awaited first Formula 1 test with Aston Martin on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.
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Alonso was the first man out of the pit lane as 9am rolled around and the light at the end of the pit lane turned green. Running in a sponsorless livery, blank overalls, and a camouflage helmet, Alonso quickly exited the Aston Martin garage. When the session restarted following a red flag for Oscar Piastri’s interruption in the third hour, he followed suit. Was it a coincidence, though? No, he answered. And this was done yesterday in the paddock. He entered first, once more. There was obviously no time to waste. Alonso began his career with Aston Martin by finishing a seat fitting on Monday and getting to know his future coworkers less than 18 hours after making his final Alpine appearance in the F1 season finale. Even though he won’t actually start until January 1st, Alonso recognised the test would be a crucial opportunity to gain a head start on 2023.
Tuesday’s race at the Yas Marina Circuit was primarily intended to test the Pirelli tyres and give young drivers more track time without Alonso, as it was in 2020. But we still learned a few things from Alonso’s first test for Aston Martin, as well as some early indicators of what to anticipate from the new alliance.
One of the simplest queries when the first opinions about Alonso’s choice to leave Alpine for Aston Martin in 2023 were voiced was, “Why leave a team fourth in the championship for the one in ninth?” Alonso has often said that it was due to the potential that Aston Martin was displaying and the team’s ambitious goals established while being owned by Lawrence Stroll. At Silverstone, a new facility is currently being built, and progress is reportedly being made at an impressive rate. The team acknowledged its mistakes with the new rules, but it responded with good flexibility to launch a late charge that put it just a point behind Alfa Romeo for sixth place in the standings.
When he signed the contract with Aston Martin in late July, Alonso said after the test that he was “90% happy,” with the remaining 10% possibly due to the poor performance throughout the year prior. He said, “I was 100% when they started getting better and finished the season on a high. “I was 100 this morning, and now I’m over 100.” Alonso acknowledged that the car philosophy was “quite different” from what he had at Alpine, but he didn’t seem to have any trouble getting used to it because it was “behaving well.” He joked that his first run’s 1m26.6s lap time was three tenths slower than his fastest time because of adaptation.
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Alonso won’t likely join Aston Martin at a particularly low point in his career. His performances through 2022 have been undeniably impressive, and even on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, he insisted that this was “without a doubt” his best season in Formula One since finishing in the top three in 2012. Alonso did not conceal his anger, though, about Alpine’s dependability issues and how they affected his final score, which was 11 points less than Esteban Ocon’s across the garage. He called his withdrawal from the race due to a water leak on Sunday night in Abu Dhabi a “summary of the season.” Aston Martin’s engine mileage was described as “excessive by my standards” before a 97-lap test, which demonstrates this.
Over the past 20 years, Alonso has made numerous F1 fresh starts, but there is a distinct energy he feels with Aston Martin. This is not the same as 2021, when he had just returned from a two-year absence and needed time to catch up. He believes he is working at his peak, and he can see that the team has a lot of room to grow. I can’t be too confident, Alonso stated, because everything will change in the upcoming year. “But the energy I felt today in the garage with the people, the team’s potential, and the skill I see in this place’s engineering room is exceptional. I’m currently extremely, extremely, extremely delighted.”
