MIAMI, Florida – The 2023 Formula 1 season began with a surprise team fighting at the front of the grid.
Aston Martin.
With veteran driver Fernando Alonso joining the team to drive alongside Lance Stroll, the team roared out of the gates. Both drivers finished in the points in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix – Stroll doing so while recovering from a painful wrist injury – and with Alonso scoring a podium finish in six of the first eight races, it seemed that Aston Martin might be the biggest story of the season.
However, the team faded down the stretch, settling for a fifth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.
A fifth-place finish this year seems well off in the distance.
The team arrived in Miami sitting seventh in the standings with ten points, putting them ten points behind sixth-place Haas. While there is hope for the future, the present poses a rather difficult challenge.
“Yeah, I mean we are not as competitive as we want to be,” said Fernando Alonso to the media, including SB Nation, Thursday in Miami. “There are a couple of factors that made the car a little bit difficult at the moment in terms of pace, and maybe not as fast as some of
the midfield. They raised the level and they are closer to the top four, and we didn’t make that step.
“So yeah, still a long championship, so we need to react.”
As noted there his hope on the horizon, with the arrival of legendary designer Adrian Newey who joined the team in March. Alonso recently spent time with Newey at the team’s brand new facility in Silverstone, but any potential fixes may be off in the future.
“I think this year is just a continuation of some of the problems that we found in the last two seasons, and we were not able to overcome some of the obstacles that we found,” continued Alonso. “I was in the factory and had lunch with Adrian, a couple of talks, but you know nothing really too much into this year.
“It was more a general talk about the team in general and how he felt in these first couple of weeks at Aston and some of the changes that may happen in the team for a better future under his guidance and his experience.
“Yeah, it’s always exciting, you know, to talk to him and to work with him finally.”
Still, with Newey joining this season, and new regulations coming into effect next year, Alonso believes that the legendary engineer’s focus will need to be on the next generation of cars.
“Designing cars as he has, you know, how much he requires and how much time he needs to dedicate, he would probably prefer even joining the team one year ago and start on [the 2026 car],” continued Alonso. “So even for [the] ‘26 project I’m sure that he thinks it’s late, so I understand completely that he needs to focus only on next year’s car.
“And this year he didn’t touch the car. He didn’t design the car, so I don’t think it’s up to him to fix the car.”
As for whether Aston Martin could steal some points this weekend, with the Miami Grand Prix factoring as one of the F1 Sprint race weekends which could create more opportunities for the team, Alonso did his best to temper expectations.
“The closest example is China, where we qualified a little bit better than expected on Friday, and we went back to our normal position by Saturday. I think if we have maybe chosen another strategy or whatever we could maybe score some points which I think on Sunday is even more difficult,” began Alonso. “So it could happen, but I think Miami has not been really a good track for us.
“Even in 2023 with a podium here [Alonso finished third in Miami that season during the team’s tremendous start] we only came alive in quali. All the free practices we were a little bit uncompetitive for our standards in 2023 at the beginning of the year and last year also. Even if we started the season strong, Miami was difficult.
“So yeah, let’s see if we change things this year, but it could be a tough weekend for sure.”
Even with those tempered expectations, Alonso seemed hopeful for what is around the corner.
“We are [headed] in the right direction, but as usual in Formula One, nothing changes from from one day to the next.
“Everything needs time.”
SB Nation will be on the ground for the entire Miami Grand Prix, so check our story stream all week long for full coverage!
