Fernando Alonso says he is “hurt” by Aston Martin’s failure to overcome McLaren in Abu Dhabi, insisting the team deserved “better” than fifth in the championship.
After successive placings of seventh since morphing into Aston Martin, the Silverstone squad accumulated a record total of 280 points and eight podiums across 2023.
However, Aston Martin had initially begun the year battling for second in the standings, with Alonso scooping six top-three race finishes in the opening eight rounds alone.
But the British marque soon got outdeveloped by Mercedes and Ferrari once the pair finally converged to the downwash sidepod solution first pioneered by Red Bull.
Aston Martin was then also overhauled by McLaren, who overturned a 137-point deficit after the eighth round into an 11-point advantage by the time the season ended.
“I mean the fifth in the Constructors hurts a little bit as I think we were better than that or we were hoping better than that at the beginning of the year,” Alonso conceded.
Alonso’s consistency through Aston Martin’s mid-season slump and a further two podiums saw him prevail in a four-way fight for fourth in the Drivers’ Championship.
With team-mate Lance Stroll six places and 132 points further behind, the Spaniard, who labelled it his best season since 2012, asserts that he surpassed expectations.
“On the Drivers to finish fourth is a little bit unreal, fighting with the guys that we were fighting,” he added. “In fact, if we are fifth in the Constructors usually you should be ninth and tenth in the Drivers, so it’s a dream season for many people in Aston Martin, including myself.”
Although he believes the points table doesn’t reflect the team’s campaign, Alonso lavished praise on the “unthinkable” progress Aston Martin had made in his debut year there.
“It has been [an] historical season for Aston Martin and for myself,” Alonso declared. “Eight podiums, more than 200 points, I think 300 points nearly for the team.
“And as I said yesterday, 12 months ago this was unthinkable. This is the best season ever for the team as well with whatever name they had before, so this is an incredible year to remember.
“Expectations were low, so we exceed expectations this year. Maybe next year is the opposite, expectations will be very high. So we have some pressure on the shoulders.”
However, the two-time champion has challenged Aston Martin to build upon the momentum of the past season and ensure it continues to move forward from this point.
“If next year if we do a step backwards that will be bad, so we need to keep moving forward,” he admitted.
“We finished fifth in the Constructors, we need to improve that next year. Fourth, third, second, whatever, will be welcome.
“In my case, after eight podiums this year, hopefully I can do something similar next.”
Discussion about this post