The handbrake has been on since the tests. He said he needed to “keep his feet on the ground” when asked if his 33rd victory would come this year or if he could aim for the podium in the first race in Bahrain after what was seen in testing. Specialists put him in the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari, and Toto Wolff even said that Aston Martin could be the second car after Red Bull. But Alonso prefers “step by step”. And despite still being cautious, the Spaniard began to mince his words after what happened this Friday on the first day of the Bahrain F1 GP. Alonso led Free Practice 2 with the best time of the day and showed race pace that Verstappen’s Red Bull narrowly beat.
“Obviously, the car feels good to drive. I would be lying if I say that the feeling is not good,” said the man from Oviedo after getting off his Aston Martin AMR23. “But everything is relative to what other teams are doing. You feel good in one car and maybe three or four cars are faster than you and then you don’t feel so good. So let’s see where we are”, added the Spaniard, still cautious about the true position of his car a lap and a long run ahead of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
“Obviously it’s good to see the seasons, that you are competitive. After testing, there are always mixed feelings about where you are and it still is until we get into qualifying and the race (in Bahrain this weekend) and maybe the first three races at different circuits: Bahrain, Jeddah and Australia “, he added. Of course, he made it clear that the team still has tenth in their pockets for Saturday and they have room for improvement.
“Right now, we’re just concentrating on ourselves. There are still many things to improve on the car. The balance isn’t quite perfect right now. The team needs to change some things. We are in the process of trying to strengthen every area of the team,” argued the Spaniard.
“I have a different philosophy than my past. We have Stoffel (Vandoorne, reserve driver) with different experience. So we’re trying to regroup everyone and be the strongest team possible. So that is the process we are in now and it is very interesting”, added Fernando who wanted to highlight the ambition of team owner Lawrence Stroll, who brings together all the ingredients to make the winning team Aston Martin.
“I think Lawrence has this vision for everything he does. It’s very difficult to watch Lawrence Stroll fail in anything he has his sights set on. I think it’s only a matter of time before Aston Martin can challenge the best teams. We are in a very interesting process with a completely new car, a new technical department and we have learned a lot. But I think there is still a long way to go,” he concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
