14/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso believes that there are more wins, even another title, up for grabs, but not this year.
After twenty seasons in F1, 355 Grands Prix and two titles, one might think that Fernando Alonso was looking forward to easing off and enjoying the twilight years of his career.
However, as witnessed on numerous occasions over the last couple of seasons, he remains as feisty as ever, relishing his battles both on and off track.
As he prepares to make his debut with his sixth team, the Spaniard insists that not only is he capable of winning more races, he might even secure another title, but admits that it is unlikely to happen this year.
"I do believe that there is a possibility," he told reporters at this evening's launch of the Aston Martin AMR3.
"I don't think this year," he quickly added. "I am honest on that, I have the feet on the ground.
"I cannot say to anyone that we will be fighting for victories this year," he continued. "I will lie if I say that. But at the same time we want to have a good car to start with and to work and develop that car throughout the season.
"Maybe in the second part of the year we can get closer if there is an opportunity, there are changeable conditions. If the opportunity comes, we will not miss that opportunity. But at the beginning I expect some difficult races until we find where the car operates."
Of course, with just three days of pre-season testing, which means a day and a half for each driver, the Spaniard admits that there is precious little time to iron out any bugs before the season gets underway next month.
"The first five or six races with Alpine, I struggled a lot to feel the front end, there were different power steering settings, all these things.
"I am aware that I will not be 100% in Bahrain, not in Jeddah, maybe not in Australia," he continued. "So that's a little bit unfair, maybe. I think that this is the only sport in the world that you do one day and a half practice and then you play a world championship.
"With Lance, I have that benchmark in a way after a few years in the team. I know what is 100, so I can get closer to that in the first moments.
"Let's see. I think we have more possibilities to fight for wins and podiums next year, if we have a good baseline this year. What we have this year will not be our normal position, I believe.
"Last year, the package had some difficulties as we all saw from the outside," said the Spaniard. "I think the team went through a few things during the season and they improved a lot at the end of the year.
"Those difficulties are very good when you understand them and you can programme something from that car. I think this is the real first car with this new set of regulations that hopefully Aston Martin can develop in the future. That will be for me the biggest thing this year, that we can develop throughout the season, and we can finish 2023 knowing that this is a baseline for the future."
Check out our AMR23 gallery, here.