Fernando Alonso has expressed that he sees a “different approach” within the Aston Martin Formula 1 team as it bids to avoid the same plight that blighted it last season.
Alonso’s switch from Alpine coincided with Aston Martin starting the season as the closest challenger to Red Bull as he picked up six podiums in the opening eight races.
However, the Silverstone-based squad regressed in the pecking order as it struggled with ineffective upgrades that saw it slip from second to fifth place in the standings.
Aston Martin has adopted a process of evolution with its AMR24 car, which it hopes will provide a base to maintain its competitiveness in an intense development race.
As for where Aston Martin stacks up heading into the first round in Bahrain, Alonso believes it will take a couple of events to gauge an accurate assessment of the order.
Asked how close Aston Martin was to Red Bull at this stage, Alonso answered: “Let’s see, let’s wait a couple of races.
“I think as Max [Verstappen] said before even Bahrain, it’s a very specific track in terms of characteristics so we will have to go through Australia and maybe even Japan to really have an order between the performance of the teams but I think the car is a step forward which is the first goal for a winter testing compared to last year.
“Everything is delivered and as expected maybe our you know step between last year and this year is good enough or not good enough, we will find out in the first couple of races.”
Alonso also believes that the distinctive conditions present at the Bahrain International Circuit mean that forming a performance chart here would prove inconclusive.
“I think it’s quite unique here in Bahrain, especially with the asphalt and the characteristics of the race, very rear-limited in terms of degradation,” he added.
“So I think we really need to wait a few races to set the competitive order of all the teams.
“Also we do a lot of testing here. In winter it is the only track that we test. So between the test and the race you can mix a little bit the order and be confused.
“So I will not pay too much attention to the results just from this first race if I was you.”
Despite Aston Martin’s tumble last season, Alonso believes the campaign provided a valuable lesson for the team as it continues its bid to compete for championships.
“What I see in the team is a different approach than 2023, where we started with a good baseline and it was a shock for us maybe how good it was at the beginning,” he said. “And then we were not, let’s say, a big team also off track, in terms of developing the car and things like that. We learned a lot of lessons last year.
“So in the way of becoming a contender for the championship in the future, I think it was an important season for Aston Martin.
“And I think this 2024 we start with a good baseline, yes, but with a lot of things in the pipeline for the rest of the season.
“So it will be interesting to see if we can keep the pace of development of the car, comparing the top teams, which obviously we didn’t meet those expectations last year and we want to improve in that regard.”
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