At 41 years old, Fernando Alonso has officially started his career at Aston Martin, his fifth different team in what will be his 20th season in Formula 1 – and will surpass the 19 of Barrichello, Schumacher and Räikkönen-. With an austere and long presentation at Silverstone, at the Aston Martin factory, next to the English circuit, the Spaniard wore his new green livery and the British team, heir to the Racing Point team, exhibited its new car, the AMR23, with which aspires to be competitive. How much?
That is the great unknown that surrounds the new car of the green team, the seventh (of 10) in the 2022 World Cup. Expectations -especially in the media- are high with the arrival of Alonso, the million-dollar investment of Lawrence Stroll (owner of the 20 % of the team's shares), and quality technical signings such as Eric Blandin, who was head of aerodynamics at Mercedes, as the new technical director. (Who warned in January that "it will take a few years to become title contenders").
“I expect something similar to Lance Stroll: have a good base. In the first part of the 2022 season Aston Martin struggled, but the second part was good. You have to keep your feet on the ground, but we cannot settle for being fourth, third or second. We may not be able to win immediately, but we have to make sure that this car is a base for future years", commented Alonso, who has already been able to taste the car, in the Pirelli test day at the Jerez circuit, which he did 130 laps with the AMR23.
From the 'Plan' he had with Alpine, to the 'Mission' with the AMR23, Alonso is looking forward to being competitive again. The Asturian is chasing his 33rd victory, which has eluded him in the last 10 years. May 13 will mark a decade since his last victory in F1, the 32nd, which came behind the wheel of the Ferrari at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Since then, 154 inglorious races in seven cars from three teams, only 9 podiums (8 with Ferrari), one in the last eight courses -the third place in Qatar 2021 with Alpine-.
Getting back on the drawer should be the most feasible dream for Alonso, since Aston Martin has already added one, from Vettel in Baku 2021, and the factory promises a step forward for the car, as some rivals are already expecting, including Christian Horner.
In his seventh season in F1, the Canadian driver was ambitious: "The goal has to be to consistently fight for many points, achieve podiums if the opportunity presents itself, we have to take a step forward compared to last year, we were ninth at the beginning of the year and we almost finished sixth, it was a good comeback. But this year I hope to be able to fight at the top. This has to be the goal."
The executive president, Lawrence Stroll, who bought 20% of the team in 2020 from Racing Point for 215 million euros, was hopeful of the step forward that his team will experience in this its third season as Aston Martin F1 Team. “We are all very motivated, we are a high-performance car company. I think we have most of the ingredients to fight for titles, we just lack a little time. We need to be patient, even if I don't have a lot of patience, but we will get there,” said owner and father of driver Lance Stroll.
