Alonso Happy With 'Over-Confident' McLaren In Contructors' Championship Battle

Friday, 06 October 2023 at 13:00

Updated at Tuesday, 10 October 2023 at 22:34

Aston Martin F1 driver Fernando Alonso articulates his thoughts in regard to the battle with McLaren ahead of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.

McLaren F1 Team has made quite a comeback from not being competitive at the beginning of the season to score second and third positions during the Japanese Grand Prix. During the post-race interview, Lando Norris mentioned he is confident in the McLaren team beating Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship this season.

While McLaren has seen some stronger performances recently, the team is still lacking 49 points on the Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship. During a press conference ahead of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso shared his view of the battle, mentioning there are "ups and downs for everybody" every weekend.

They’ve been very strong before the August break in Austria, in Silverstone. I think they were close to being both [cars] on the podium in Silverstone. And then in Zandvoort, we were on the podium and they struggled a little bit. So, it’s good if they’re over-confident. Let’s see if we can beat them in Abu Dhabi.

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Aston Martin has performed well this season on the tracks with fast corners, and as Liam Lawson said in his recent interview, Lusail Circuit for the Qatar Grand Prix has only one slow corner. Fernando Alonso identified a few unknowns that might make the weekend more interesting.

"I think the question mark is the new asphalt, how grippy it is, and how dusty is it gonna be in the free practice one. The sprint weekend will obviously add spice to everything."

Sprint weekend means drivers with their teams will have only one practice session to get used to the track and adjust their cars. The first practice will be followed by qualifying for the main event on Friday. Saturday will include Sprint Shootout (qualifying for the sprint) as well as the sprint race. The main race takes place on Sunday.