Alonso Admits He Was 'Too Optimistic' After Early Success In Aston Martin

Tuesday, 03 October 2023 at 04:00

Updated at Tuesday, 10 October 2023 at 21:39

Fernando Alonso admitted in a recent interview that he was "a little bit too optimistic" after the early success of his Aston Martin in 2023.

After a not-so-successful season at Alpine in 2022, Fernando Alonso joined the Aston Martin F1 Team for the 2023 season. With Aston Martin finishing seventh in the Constructors' Championship in 2022, Alonso's expectations were probably not too high.

However, Aston Martin was able to build a competitive car and had a surprising start to the season when, during the first Grand Prix of the season - Bahrain Grand Prix, the team scored a podium and a sixth place thanks to Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

While Alonso finished third in the race 38 seconds behind Max Verstappen on the dominant Red Bull, he finished the best of the rest beating teams like Ferrari and Mercedes - an engine supplier to Aston Martin F1 team.

Throughout the first eight races, Alonso stood six times on the podium, achieving both third and second-place finishes. The Spaniard was surprised by the car's performance, as he admitted in the interview for Channel 4, saying that he got "a little bit too optimistic."

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"To be honest, to be fighting for podiums and things like that, I think it was a little bit too optimistic. But we found ourselves in a very strong position in Bahrain with a car that was performing really well and it was a nice surprise to have such a competitive car."

After the first eight races, on the other hand, Aston Martin fell a bit back with its performance, and the Spanish matador was able to score only one podium in the following eight races. Aston Martin is now level with three other teams - Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes. Now, Alonso remains hopeful the team can make improvements and fight for race wins again next year.

"So now we want more - we want the next step, which is fighting for race wins. Red Bull was very dominant this year but, next year, hopefully, we can do that step."