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An “unreal” Bahrain Grand Prix weekend fighting Formula 1 teams he thought “untouchable” has left Aston Martin “living a dream”, says Fernando Alonso – but the best may be yet to come.
Alonso says it “feels too good to be true” to be talking about a potential podium in the 2023 F1 season opener but that is the reality he and his new team are facing.
OK, the pole position that bid that looked fleetingly genuine through practice did not materialise. The Aston Martin, as expected after testing, is not quite a Red Bull-beater.
It is, however, quicker than Mercedes and very much a Ferrari threat.
To qualify fifth was therefore a fine result for Alonso, even if many hoped for more. He said: “It was amazing. The whole weekend has been unreal for us.
“It was too good to be true, every session and every performance of the car. In qualifying our expectation was to be around half of a second from Red Bull. So, it was quite right.
“I don’t know what to say because eight months ago the project was just a bet but now to be at race one with a completely new car, which I think we still need to unlock a lot of potential in, to be in the top five, fighting with Ferrari and Mercedes, it seems a little bit unreal.”
Alonso’s pacesetting time in FP2 and strong showing in other sessions was encouraging but an outlier given the outright pace of the AMR23 was expected to be behind Red Bull and probably Ferrari too.
But Aston Martin’s trump card in testing and again in Friday practice in Bahrain was its long-run pace. So, unsurprisingly, Alonso has been singled out by almost everybody around him as a podium challenger.
As Mercedes driver George Russell put it: “Fernando is probably more of a dark horse than Ferrari.”
Alonso spent testing and the start of this event playing things down. Now he admits that qualifying has shown the potential everybody saw was real. And as there is a tangible chance of a stellar result, even he is daring to dream.
“We thought, to be honest, that the first three teams were untouchable this year with the advantage they had last year,” Alonso said.
“Maybe we try to lead the midfield, or mix in the midfield. Now we are saying we start P5 and maybe we fight with the Ferraris for the podium.
“This is just incredible. Let’s keep working, keep our feet on the ground and execute the race in the best way possible, no mistakes, good start, good pitstops, let’s see where we are.
“But yeah, right now we are living a dream.”
A podium could be a reality.
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez knows this team of old and is aware of just how well prepared it has been historically for races, always prioritising Sunday over Saturday. So, his assertion that “we can expect a very strong Aston” in the grand prix is a well-qualified one. And Ferrari knows its tyre degradation looks worse than Aston Martin’s too.
A chuckling Alonso said after qualifying: “Let’s see! I’m laughing because going for a podium in race one… it feels too good to be true.
“For sure from what we saw so far on our car and also historically, Aston Martin has very good tyre management.
“If we have an opportunity we will take it.”
