Aston Martin rebirth: Alonso hopes for a 2023 McLaren ‘replay’

Checkered flag only at Suzuka Despite good expectations this season with the new Honda engines, the first three races of the championship were to forget for Aston Martin, struggling with reliability problems with both the car and the power units. Only in the last test in Japan did Fernando Alonso reach the finish line, the same driver who in China had sensationally had to raise the white flag due to annoying and incessant vibrations at the steering wheel. During this break the Silverstone team is working to quickly resolve the problems encountered by the single-seaters, but in the meantime the two-time world champion hopes to be able to get back to the top of F1 by following the model of another team. Woking teaches The Spaniard’s hope is to emulate the case of the McLaren MCL60, a car designed for the 2023 championship but which did not immediately bring the desired results, so much so that Technical Director James Key was removed from his position. However, over the course of the season, the Woking company brought important updates between the Austrian and English GPs, which significantly increased the competitiveness of the car, with 9 total podiums achieved between Norris and Piastri. An improvement that was the basis for the following championship, which ended with the victory of the 2024 and 2025 Constructors’ titles, in addition to Norris’s success in the last world championship. Possible business? An ascent that Alonso hopes to experience first-hand with Aston Martin, as he declared to the media: “I think it will take a couple of months for Aston Martin to return – he commented – we saw McLaren in 2023, last in the first two races, but then took the lead at the end of the year. Maybe it’s too optimistic, but it’s a dream scenario. We know that the season is long and, if you understand the problems and resolve them, you have plenty of time to find yourself in the second part of the year, or in the last third, in a much better position, and that’s what we’re working on. The car and the engine have huge potential and we’ve made progress since the testing in Bahrain in terms of setting up and understanding some of the handling issues, so we’re in a much better position now. We need to sort out the vibrations, we still need to make up the power deficit and there are key aspects that are still struggling, but it’s not like the team is watching the TV. They’re working full steam ahead, so we just need time, we need to be patient because while the factory brings updates, we have to continue working and racing every weekend with a package that is not the most competitive at the moment.”