After three days with virtually no blemishes, Aston Martin has emerged as one of the most outstanding teams, still trailing the almighty Red Bull and Verstappen.
Every pre-season of Formula 1 is the same. “This year yes or will it be no again?” is one of the recurring questions that journalists who specialize in Formula 1 get to hear around this time. Typical cliché that also serves to belittle Fernando Alonso, who has earned him as much ridicule as idolatry from most media sectors of the press. At almost 42 years old, the Asturian enjoys not only old fans already combing gray hair, but also a horde of children who were crawling (if they were born) when he already made millions of Spaniards dream. The dream of the 33rd victory, like that of the triple crown or the failed Plan before it, has become a cabal that sounds like an “ass sale” to the anti-Alonsistas and an evangelical premonition to the staunch acolytes.
The 2023 pre-season serves to show that Alonso is in any case not in a worse scenario than last year. The abrupt separation from Alpine, a team that spat in the face of its latest legend, suggested that Alonso was reaching for a burning nail to further stretch the gums of his sporting career. Aston Martin was just the old Force India, but with Lawrence Stroll’s money behind it. When on Thursday, the first day of rehearsal in Bahrain, Felipe Drugovich, the lucky tester due to the accident of the owner’s son, raised the first red flag, cold sweat ran down as many backs as sly smiles on self-sufficient mouths. . “Not another year,” said one and the other.
But Alonso is determined to show that his story has no fixed script. After a difficult morning he completed 60 laps. The next day, the only day he spent all day behind the wheel of the AMR23, he put in a whopping 130 laps to finish the third day with an afternoon of 80 more laps, with little degradation and an over decent career simulation. No one has driven more than him, 270 laps in three days. Two thirds and a ninth on the irrelevant time table, but always with Max Verstappen, the undisputed rival to beat, very close. Red Bull is not just the defending champion, Sergio Pérez made it clear on Saturday with his last best time.
Nothing guarantees that this pre-season will be synonymous with success in the rest of the campaign, but for Aston Martin it’s better to do it that way than not in the vein of other teams. Case of a stray McLaren assuming they’ve made a mistake in the development trajectory of the new car or the irrelevant Alpine, fallen out of favor in a lower-mid zone where they’ve been seen even farther from the upper zone.
Determining a starting position for Aston Martin is complex, but the major change made by the team led by Mike Krack on the track and Dan Fallows in the design room has paid off a priori. The AMR23 is a fairly docile car to drive, adaptable to the characteristics Alonso needs and has delivered better performance than its predecessor.
There’s one area that’s raised a lot of suspicion about the green car, and that’s the rear. While other teams struggle to keep their cars on the line, Aston Martin seem much sharper in this regard, which could be an advantage especially in the first third of the season. If the Mercedes engine is added to this, which without being the superior it has been in the past, is capable of fighting to be one of the fastest, it can be said without much risk of mistake that Aston Martin is gone from being the seventh or eighth car on the grid to fourth or fifth, behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes (who, as always, have hedged themselves to the point that it is impossible to place them higher) and with doubts that this motley crew midfield of the net can generate.
If Aston Martin comes out of average, there is hope to see Alonso fight for something beyond his usual constitutional fifth-place finish. He already proved this in his first year at Alpine, when the illustrious Otmar Szafnauer had not yet arrived and the good results did not feel bad within the wall of the French team because Alonso achieved them. That third place in Qatar 2021, the 98th of Alonso’s career, was confirmation that in his new youth all he needs is a steed with which to reach one last horizon.
Without the smoke obscuring the view, and with due caution, when asked whether Alonso can win a Grand Prix this year, the answer cannot be other than the one he himself gave on the day the car was presented: « Almost certainly not.” Perhaps it only takes “almost” to fully fulfill the Cabal.
Fernando Alonso felt comfortable and calm after his 20th pre-season in Formula 1. The Spaniard ended the three days as the driver with the most laps, 270, and the feeling that Aston Martin has reason for optimism. “It was a good day for us with a lot of laps where we learned a lot about the new car,” he summed up after the last day of training, before calling for the typical and topical composure required in this type of testing. “We don’t know what the others are doing so there are still a lot of questions to answer. It has been an unusual pre-season for the team as Lance Stroll’s injury has kept him from being in Bahrain. In all likelihood he will continue without being in the race.”We’re missing Lance here this week, but I have to say that Felipe (Drugovich, the tester) has adapted really well and done a good job,” the Spaniard admitted.Overall, Alonso admits to be pleased with what he has seen from AMR23. “Overall the car felt competitive over the three days, but we need to compare it to the others next week. We still have a lot of potential to unlock and I think next week be in a good place this week,” he said with a smile. He is clear about the challenge ahead. “Our goal is to take a step forward from last year and we’re going to do that step by step “, he stated .
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
