Alonso And Aston Martin Marked 'Biggest Surprise' Of Season By Palmer

Sunday, 24 December 2023 at 13:00

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer pinpointed Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso as the biggest surprise of the 2023 season.

The British motorsport commentator and columnist Jolyon Palmer wrote an article for Formula 1 where he outlined the stand-out performers and the best moments of the 2023 season.

When it came down to the "biggest surprise," Palmer chose Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso, who was not expected to compete for the podiums this season, yet they made incredible progress and collected eight of them.

"This was another huge feel-good story of the year and a great storyline throughout the season. Who saw Fernando Alonso returning to the front with such consistency, for the first time in 10 years, coming?"

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Alonso's move to Aston Martin did not seem like the most logical one, as he went from the fourth-place team to the seventh-place team in the 2022 Championship.

However, Aston Martin made incredible progress in terms of car development through the winter break ahead of the 2023 season and gave Alonso "weapon of a car," as Palmer called it.

"It was a brilliant achievement for Aston Martin to unleash such a weapon of a car in Bahrain, and they managed to lure over just the driver to extract the very best from it."

Alonso achieved eight podiums and came very close to scoring another victory in his career during the Monaco Grand Prix, but a bad strategy call meant he finished "only" second.

The two-time World Champion himself stated Aston Martin deserved the win more than anybody else in 2023. Palmer suggests it was the last missing piece from Alonso's and Aston Martin's fairytale.

"The only thing missing from this fairytale return was that elusive 33rd victory, and it was oh so close. The team tailing off later in the year could be cause for concern, but if they can have a strong winter once again, a Fernando win could be possible in 2024."