Fernando Alonso, Spanish driver of the Aston Martin F1 Team AMR24, remains optimistic about Aston Martin’s chances in Formula 1 in 2024, despite finishing ninth in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Alonso exceeded expectations during the Friday qualifying session, surpassing McLaren’s drivers and Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes. Given Aston Martin’s strong performance in the previous season, Alonso believes another podium is still possible. Although he ended up behind his competitors and finished ninth, Alonso is not concerned about Aston Martin’s race pace. According to him, the team had realistic expectations when he visited the factory in December and January. They were aware of the progress made during the winter and changed their approach to the championship. Instead of putting everything at the beginning of the season as they did last year, they now focus on continuous progress throughout the season. Alonso is hopeful for the second part of the championship and believes Aston Martin can become a stronger team, just like McLaren’s improvement in 2023.
Alonso attributed the performance difference between qualifying and the race to an impressive lap and believes it is worth studying, considering the team’s simulations indicated he would finish ninth, with a gap to the teams ahead and behind, exactly as the race unfolded.
According to Alonso’s assessment, he had McLaren 18 seconds ahead and Sauber 28 seconds behind, placing him in the middle of nowhere race.
Looking ahead to the next race in Jeddah, Alonso hopes Aston’s luck can change. The AMR23 had limitations in high-speed corners, which are a prominent feature at the Corniche Circuit in Jeddah. However, Alonso states that the AMR24 has made improvements in this area.
Alonso believes the upcoming race in Jeddah will be interesting due to the different characteristics of the circuit. He notes that this year’s car was only tested in Bahrain during the winter and now in the first race, making it the first time to compare its performance on a different track. Besides Aston, Alonso thinks the cars’ strengths are very similar to last year, with Ferrari being the second fastest. He mentions that Ferrari was also the second fastest last year in Bahrain, but Leclerc’s battery prevented them from reaching the podium. However, this year they managed to secure a podium. In Saudi Arabia, Alonso notes that Aston and Mercedes were slightly ahead of Ferrari. He expects both Aston and Mercedes to be stronger in the next race.
As for the current world champions, Alonso expects Red Bull to continue dominating, despite claims that the competition is fiercer in 2024 and that the dominant performance in Bahrain was an exception.
