Aston Martin's ambassador, Pedro de la Rosa, discussed the impact of having the double World Champion Fernando Alonso on the team.
Fernando Alonso made a move to join a seemingly unsuccessful team after the end of the 2022 season. He went from Alpine, who finished fourth in the Championship, to Aston Martin, who finished seventh.
The Spanish Matador had a history of unlucky moves between F1 teams, and many fans and experts questioned the 42-year-old's decision.
However, as we know today, it turned out more than well for Alonso as he achieved eight podiums with the team and definitely did better in the Championship than in the Alpine.
Observing from the outside, it seems like there is a great synergy between the Spaniard and the rest of the team, One of the Aston Martin members, Pedro de la Rosa told RacingNews365:
"He is always extremely professional and when he focuses on something, he delivers 100 percent. If Fernando tells you he can be somewhere by 7:30 the next morning, he'll be there. Then it doesn't matter if there is something going on with the weather or the traffic - he is there."
The Spaniard is the most experienced driver in Formula One ever, with more race starts than anybody in history. De la Rosa believes the element of discipline transfers from Alonso to everybody else on the team.
"I think that also helped all of us to raise our game. I can only see positives from Fernando's arrival. The very first moment he arrived to the team and you can tell he came here to work hard."
Being the oldest driver on the grid, Alonso often receives questions about retirement. He recently admitted he is in the closing stages of his career, but he mentioned he still doesn't lack the motivation, and from watching him, the Spaniard certainly doesn't lack the skills.
The Aston Martin ambassador mentioned he felt the mindset of the double World Champion when he joined the team. He added:
"This is the sense we got from him, is that he's not here on a retirement phase, it's not like that. He's here to win championships and that gave us a very strong energy inside the team."