A couple of hours before the race, alonso he crossed smiling paddock with a bowl of rice in hand on the way to the garage. “We don’t have waiters, all the money is in the car.” A couple of hours after the race, Fernando would have had someone to bring his tray: all the mechanics, engineers and the rest of the Aston Martin workers on the circuit surrounded the driver and chanted his name in front of the box, celebrating the third place in the Bahrain GP and were photographed with the trophy. In 57 laps with the team british greenthe Spaniard had already matched the haul of podiums he achieved over two years in Alpine (one, Qatar 2021). With this start, winning a race throughout 2023 is a plausible goal, although its leaders change the subject “with their feet on the ground.”
There are reasons to believe: the AMR23 It is today the third car on one lap, after Red Bull and Ferrari; and the second in race pace only behind the RB19. It was like that in sakhira traction circuit that rewards the qualities of the single-seater of Silverstone. It doesn’t have to be in jeddah either Melbourne, high-speed tracks in which the global capabilities of this car can be weighed against the rest of the greats. He SF-23 should progress thanks to his top speed. Mercedes, on the other hand, does not have great qualities. In any case, Aston Martin already arouses suspicious comments and that’s always a good thing in F1: your car is irrelevant if nobody talks about it.
Hamilton concluded that the Aston Martin is average Mercedesbecause it uses the power unit, gearbox and rear suspension that they manufacture in brackley. She released it as a criticism of his team: “We will have to do a better job.” It is not usual for a client to beat a builder. Toto Wolff, boss, applies: “Aston Martin is an inspiration. We have wasted a year in development by not making courageous decisions like the one they have made.” At the other side of paddockat Red Bull, are also looking with interest at the AMR23 of Alonso and Stroll. Checo said at the press conference that there were “three Red Bulls on the podium” and Marko Helmut has dropped that those who abandoned Milton Keynes to join the green project they have a “good memory”.
“We are not in a real fight with Red Bull… yet”
Envy is a consequence of the immobility in certain design offices when facing the 2023 season. “The most important thing is that the Aston Martin It is a new car, just the beginning of this concept that we have changed over the winter. Other ‘top’ teams maintained their philosophy, such as Red Bull or Ferrari. We have changed 95% of the car so we have a lot to learn. I fully trust everything the team does”, Alonso stressed after the podium. It remains to be seen where the Spaniard would have been if instead of giving up positions at the start, he had completed a clean race against Verstappen and perez. “I wasted time with Russell, boots, hamilton and Sainz. Instead of 40 seconds with the leader it could have been 20 or 30. We are not in a real fight. Still”, Fernando closes.
And now that? The time of Aston Martin in the wind tunnel this year it is better than all its direct rivals because they finished seventh in the last constructors’ championship. From the garage there is talk of an ambitious evolution plan (which will foreseeably start in the Azerbaijan GP), although the most important thing is already done. “In a spending ceiling environment you need to start with a good base. You can’t afford to spend more than you have available on development. That’s why we were aggressive with winter targets. It’s not easy to achieve, but the team has achieved enormous things. It will be much easier to develop this base”, predicts Mike Krack, team leader.
AND Dan Fallows, the technical director who signs it: “We are happy, we wanted to take a big step compared to last year. We have met some aggressive targets. It’s harder to do than to say. Since we took the car to the track, it has done as expected in terms of wind tunnel numbers.” Red Bull’s advantage is great. The room for improvement of the AMR23, possibly too.
