According to Fernando Alonso, the exciting part of the season is just beginning: we’ll see if Aston Martin can hold out against the big three teams off the track.
Three times out of three on the podium, in a close battle with the big stables – Aston Martin has landed among the leading teams this year. According to their own admission, sooner than expected. In Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, together with Fernando Alonso, they were the first pursuers of Red Bull, and in Australia they had a great battle with Mercedes, and although they failed, they got third place.
But what does the sequel bring?
According to Lance Stroll, who finished fourth in Melbourne thanks to some luck, by his own admission they can’t be calm based on directions. The Canadian feels that the improved Mercedes is already ahead of them. “We were not as fast as in the first race. Alpine went well, and they were ahead of me. Carlos (Sainz) also had a strong race. I don’t think we would have been in front of our direct opponents this time.” Picnic warned.
While Alonso could only have been beaten by the Red Bulls in the first two races, Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes have now proven to be better than him, so Stroll’s concerns are well-founded. Especially considering the fact that Sergio Perez’s qualifying misfortune and George Russell’s elimination helped Alonso get into the top three.
Referring to Sergio Perez’s taunting in Bahrain, Alonso commented after Sunday’s race: “No more Red Bulls on the podium…if only Chico was here!”
Although Mercedes beat them, there is no surprise in this, according to Alonso. “Mercedes was also fast in Jeddah. I was a tenth away from George the whole race and had to fight for an extra five seconds at the end, so it was very close.” pointed out.
On whether Aston Martin should fear that the opponents they find themselves will push them back in the continuity and end up on the field where they originally expected, Alonso indicated that the current three-week break and the European season would start later in the future. Imola will likely redistribute the cards, so they don’t sit on their laurels.
“It seems that the time trial is very important because the pace of our race is very similar. And now comes the interesting part of the season, when the question is who develops their car faster.”
Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)“The first three races were held outside Europe, and it was difficult to come up with improvements, but from now on the power order between the teams is probably going to change a bit, from race to race, depending on who makes the improvements and whether they turn out to be good enough.” said the Spaniard.
He added that they still don’t set a high bar for themselves.
“These are happy days for us. We never expected to be on the podium, maybe even looking at the whole season. And now after three races we have three podiums. Whatever comes after that is just a comeback.”
“Third and fourth places are worth a lot of points. We take every opportunity, we have to learn and improve as a team, and maybe off the track, because we are now fighting with Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, teams that are used to this pace of development. We are still learning. So we have a humble approach. Until 2023 and we will see how it turns out. The two-time world champion looked forward.
