Alonso predicts “difficult” early races: “In F1 there are no miracles"
Alonso makes the switch to Aston Martin as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement alongside Lance Stroll.
Despite two lacklustre seasons, Aston Martin are quite confident of improving on their back-to-back P7 finishes in the constructors’ championship.
Technical chief Dan Fallows has already labelled the AMR23 as “bold and aggressive”, lending to their Red Bull-like sidepod design.
Alonso has finished on the podium just once since leaving Ferrari, while his win drought stretches back to 2013.
“They are not giving expectations that are unrealistic. They know where we are,” Alonso said. “We have to understand that in F1 there are no miracles from one year to the next.
“We know that last year only three teams finished on the same lap as the leader - Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Everybody else was one lap behind, including Alpine, who finished fourth in the championship, and McLaren.
“We know that those kind of gaps in F1 are very difficult to overcome in two or three months. But let’s see if we can have a good season, enjoy it, have good reliability and make sure that the team grows up during the season.
“The most important thing for me this year is just to make sure that this car and this baseline is the one with which we will develop the future Aston Martin cars.”
With just one and a half days of testing available to every driver on the grid ahead of the new season, Alonso expects the first few races to be “difficult” as he adapts to life with Aston Martin.
“I have my feet on the ground,” Alonso added. “I cannot say to anyone that we will be fighting for victories this year. I will lie if I say that. But at the same time, we want to have a good car to start with, and to work and develop that car throughout the season.
“Maybe in the second part of the year, we can get closer. If there is an opportunity that is in changeable conditions, if the opportunity comes, we will not miss that opportunity.
“But at the beginning, I expect some difficult races until we find where the car operates, in which window we have to work with the set-up.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
