Fernando Alonso has vowed that his second season with the Aston Martin Formula 1 team in 2024 will be “even better” than his debut year.
The expectations placed on Aston Martin heading into the upcoming campaign have been ramped up greatly after it became a recognised podium contender during 2023.
Aston Martin developed the downwash sidepod solution it had introduced midway through 2022 to emerge as Red Bull’s closest challenger in the nascent stages. Alonso, who had arrived from Alpine the past winter, accrued six podiums in the first eight races.
However, the Spaniard would only appear on the rostrum twice in the last 16 rounds after unintended “side effects” from upgrades derailed the side’s initial early momentum.
Although Aston Martin dropped to fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, Alonso hailed the progress the team had made compared to the seasons prior to his arrival.
Upon his return to its Silverstone base last week, Alonso asserted that he is optimistic that Aston Martin can be braced for an even stronger season than it managed last term.
“Everyone is at 100%, 2023 has been an incredible season and 2024 is going to be even better,” Alonso said in a video posted on Aston Martin’s social media channels.
“Back in the car, in the factory, hyper-focused… It means total dedication to what you do. Being united now, also sending the message to everyone that we are here, to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and ready for the new season,” he added.
In a bid to reverse its downtrend trend, Aston Martin encountered further complications with developments bolted onto the AMR23 in Austin, which forced the team to conduct extreme experiments across several rounds.
As the British marque endeavours to apply those learnings to its 2024 challenger, Alonso has spoken about the importance of utilising the simulator tools at its disposal.
“When you are in the simulator, the main thing is concentration,” Alonso explained.
“You have to be very precise. That precision, that concentration, that you have to have here in the simulator, is quite extreme. And it has to be, I think, similar to the real car.”
Alonso has previously challenged Aston Martin to build upon the successes of the previous campaign to ensure it continues progressing further up the pecking order.
“If next year if we do a step backwards that will be bad, so we need to keep moving forward,” he admitted in November.
“We finished fifth in the Constructors, we need to improve that next year. Fourth, third, second, whatever, will be welcome.”
Aston Martin will launch the AMR24 on February 12 at its new state-of-the-art Silverstone headquarters, with Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll in attendance.
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