Fernando Alonso described qualifying fifth on the grid for his debut with Aston Martin as “unreal” after joining the team for 2023.
He set the quickest time in the second and third practice sessions and was been tipped by many of his rivals as a genuine contender for pole. Despite qualifying behind both Red Bulls and Ferraris, Alonso says he was still delighted with the result in his first qualifying session with the team.“It was amazing,” he said. “I mean, the whole weekend has been unreal for us.
“It was like too good to be true every session and every performance of the car. And then in qualifying, our expectation was to be around half a second from Red Bull and I think we are half a second or six tenths from pole position. So it was quite right.”
Qualifying has confirmed that Aston Martin’s pace is genuine, Alonso says, after he could not be certain about how their performance would measure up based on testing and practice.
“In practice we knew that we were around third or fifth or fourth,” he explained. “We didn’t know exactly what Ferrari was doing. For sure we were behind Red Bull, but I think it was just a couple of milliseconds always that we were in front of them, so the position looked too good.
“Now there is not much more to downplay anything because this is qualifying, all in the same conditions and we are in the mix with Ferrari and Mercedes. So again, unreal.”
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After going nearly a full decade without a race win moving between teams in a bid to chase a third world championship, Alonso admits he is not used to heading into a race feeling optimistic about his chances.
“It feels so strange for me to say that we’ll start P5 and maybe we are aiming for more,” Alonso said.
“We thought, to be honest, that the first three teams, they were untouchable this year with the advantage they had last year and maybe try to lead the midfield or mix in the midfield. But now we’re saying that we start P5 and maybe we fight with the Ferraris for the podium – so this is just incredible.
“So let’s keep on going, let’s keep working, keep the feet on the ground and execute the race the best way possible, no mistakes, good start, good pit stops and let’s see where we are. But so far we are living a dream.”
Alonso joined Aston Martin after leaving Alpine at the end of last season. He admitted he had taken a gamble in joining the Silverstone-based squad.
“I don’t know even what to say, because eight months ago the project was just a bet,” he said. “But now to be race one with a completely new car, I think we need still to unlock a lot of potential.”
Asked if he envisioned being able to fight for a podium in tomorrow’s race, Alonso said “let’s see.”
“I mean, I’m laughing because going for a podium in race one,” he continues.” It feels, again, too good to be true. But for sure what we saw so far on our car and also historically, Aston Martin has very good tyre management. So if we have an opportunity for sure, we will take it.”
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Red Andy (@red-andy)
4th March 2023, 18:14
Surely no driver in history has qualified fifth as often as Alonso? Back in his Ferrari days it seemed as though the fifth grid slot had his name carved into the tarmac. I guess it’s always nice to come home.
MichaelN
4th March 2023, 19:59
Räikkönen actually started from 5th 39 times, one more than Alonso (assuming he starts the race in 5th tomorrow).
Edvaldo
4th March 2023, 18:29
10th season of the hybrid era and finally Alonso has an engine on par with the best.
Renault was never there reliability wise, Honda was GP2 level and 2014 Ferrari was also pretty weak.
Tells a bit about his career choices.
Edd
4th March 2023, 18:55
Nothing makes me laugh more than these pathetic summaries about “choices”.
Every decision was rational. Every single one.
Had he had a British passport maybe it would have been easier for him.
Yaru (@yaru)
4th March 2023, 19:19
Not really, argubly Mercedes engine is 3rd out of 4th. The switch to E10 seems to have really weakened them plus big gains by Ferrari and Honda engines last year before the freeze.
However he is seemingly in a better relative car than before.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th March 2023, 19:40
Without wanting to sound blinkered or a broken record – his choices weren’t bad.
Ferrari should have been much much much better prepared from new engine regs in 2014 given how much the team prides itself on them and knew it lost the previous four titles on aero.
When he moved to McLaren there was the expectation Honda would be a bit further up the road than they were. Besides, a Honda engined privateer were the ones to break Mercedes dominance.
Renault was really the only port left for 2021, it may have been unreliable but it was worth coming out of retirement for.
MichaelN
4th March 2023, 20:38
But 2014 was Alonso’s last season at Ferrari. In his first, in 2010, he went into the last race leading the championship. He had another chance to win the title in 2012, partly thanks to a rather chaotic year in which Ferrari wasn’t necessarily all that great. But regardless, only two other teams were in that position so it wasn’t like the Ferrari that year was all that bad.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th March 2023, 0:41
Yes, true, the thing is in the last 13 years there’s been hardly any teams able to compete for titles: red bull in the vettel era, sometimes ferrari during it, then basically only mercedes with a little of competition from ferrari, 2021 only red bull and merc and then only red bull, overall being at ferrari wasn’t that bad compared to other teams in term of choice, if anything he should’ve stayed longer, some slim chance in 2017 and reasonable in 2018.
David
4th March 2023, 18:45
Premature.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th March 2023, 0:42
Agreed, seems way too optimist.
amian
4th March 2023, 19:44
I’m so happy for him! I was so afraid he would get stuck in a garbage car serving as a spring-board to retirement just like it did for Vettel.
Unfortunately, most of the times a lesser team builds a fast car, they are not able to compete with the speed of improvement through the season and only get weaker as the season progresses. Last year we saw it with Alfa Romeo and Alpine.
I hope the green Aston Martin becomes what Benetton became in the early 90s though.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th March 2023, 22:14
Anyone know a bookie that pays out for 5th?
Face it Grandad, you’ve gone to Jordan, and that’s been the graveyard for many an F1 career, including Capelli, Boutsen, Brundle, Hill, di Resta and Vettel…
Nick T.
5th March 2023, 4:24
lol, angry Hamilton fan?
Calling him grandad is just complimenting his skills you fool.
superman
4th March 2023, 22:18
Good for him! He deserves it!
Alonso could have had TEN championships by now if he’d had better teams.
How was he to know that epic teams like Ferrari and McLaren would be such pathetic fails. If he’d gone to Merc theres no way even Nico would have beaten him, and even Nico would admit that!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th March 2023, 0:48
Yes, mclaren honda had great success with senna and prost, surely people were expecting that instead of the flop it was from 2015 on, and red bull and merc mercedes were the team to be in with hindsight from 2010 to 2013 and 2014 to 2021 respectively (still the best car imo), if you couldn’t be at red bull or merc, most of those years ferrari was the 2nd best place and alonso was there for the first 5 years. Also, when alonso joined ferrari mercedes still hadn’t done anything good since their return, they had been a top team 55 years before and that’s it, and red bull was still a fairly new team, although they were already improving in 2009.
Tunde
5th March 2023, 9:19
Yeah, Lewis would have won in a Ferrari in 2017 & 2018…
It’s all speculation… What you do is what counts for you.
So, what Alonso achieved is what counts for him not what he could or might have achieved…
Todfod (@todfod)
5th March 2023, 5:49
It’s good to see Alonso smiling and optimistic… It’s been a while. It’s crazy how he was always so unenthusiastic about qualifying P5 when with Ferrari, but after years with rock bottom performance cars, he’s at least back to being in the mix upfront. I think he’ll be driving the wheels off that car tomorrow. I reckon he’ll beat Leclerc to a podium of he gets a good start.
Sviat
5th March 2023, 8:38
Yep, Fernando needs to beat Sainz from start and then save the tyres. Mercedes will be better in the race, so Aston need to take into account what the Mercedes are doing, too. Fingers crossed.