Fernando Alonso has given himself license to dream of the Aston Martin, his sixth different car in his 20th season in F1. After some hopeful pre-season tests, ratified in the three free practice sessions, his fifth place in the qualifying session for the Bahrain GP encourages the Spaniard to think about ambitious goals, “score good points” and, why not, even get excited about a podium in the first race of the year.
“Very good, very good. In the end you don’t quite believe it, when it was FP1, FP2 and you tell yourself that the time will come when we return to reality. In qualifying it is true that we lack that half second to fight for pole, but it was just what we had”, commented Fernando Alonso to the Dazn TV microphone after qualifying in Bahrain.
“The expectations were to be around fifth or sixth place, half a second from pole [he was 5th, 0.628 behind Verstappen]. The truth is that there is almost a pinch because only eight months ago, when I signed for Aston Martin, things looked much worse. It’s almost a dream to be in fifth position on the first starting grid”, commented the Spaniard.
Regarding his expectations for the race (this Sunday at 4:00 p.m.), Alonso is confident of having a good performance. “For the race, we’ll see. The strong point of the car has been in the long runs, so starting in the top 5 hopefully we can be there in the fight for good points and if something happens in front of us, be very close to the podium. See to believe”.
The Asturian spoke about the high expectations he has in the Aston Martin AMR23, a completely new car, which has taken a spectacular leap forward. A year ago he was 2 seconds off pole in Bahrain. Now, only 6 tenths.
“The car is just the base, it’s practically the beginning of this project. So when I talk to the designers they tell me that important things are coming, evolutions in the next grand prix, and that fills me with enthusiasm, seeing how hungry everyone is. the world in the team”, says Alonso.
Mike Krack, the boss of Aston Martin, expressed the almost euphoric state that exists in the Silverstone team with the results of its two drivers in the first classification, with Alonso 5th and Lance Stroll, 8th. “We are very satisfied. We always wanted to take that step forward compared to last year and today we have confirmed that that leap has been substantial, not small, with both cars in Q3. There is no reason not to be happy today. In the race we can go very fast. We have done a good preparation, all the homework, we can be very strong,” said the Luxembourg engineer.