F1: Another step forward for Fernando Alonso at the end of the tests

Aston Martin confirms its growth and the two-time world champion shines with great race pace at Sakhir.

• First working day Alonso, 29 thousandths behind Verstappen

In just three pre-season sessions, Aston Martin has confirmed a big step forward at Sakhir. And the atmosphere within the team, under the influence of Fernando Alonso, gives a good example of it. Yesterday, after the last relay of the Asturian, the engineers and mechanics led by Mike Krack and Dan Fallows they could barely conceal their satisfaction after reviewing the time tables. Alonso’s race pace placed the Anglo-Austrian team as the third power on the grid, only behind Red Bull and Ferrari. With only two weeks to go before the start of the World Cup, Aston Martin seems to have the weapons to fight on almost equal terms with Mercedes.

It has been a very important and very good week. We can still get a lot more out of the car, things that we haven’t had time to test, but the car has felt very good during these three days, Alonso valued yesterday as soon as he got off the AMR23. The sensations of the two-time world champion are nothing like those that he experienced last year in Alpine. Or years ago with McLaren. In fact, it is about his preseason since his time with Ferrari. A decade later, the man from Oviedo feels that his chances of rubbing shoulders with the favorites are greater than ever.

The reasons for this optimism materialized yesterday in the regularity with which Alonso stopped the clock in the simulations organized by his wall. With the C2 tyre, yellow in color and prepared for the hot and abrasive asphalt of Bahrain, Fernando completed 17 laps in which he did not go below 1:36, an extraordinarily competitive pace that only pales in comparison to the mighty Red Bull and Ferrari. Performing at this level in the long runs, completing the 300 km of a race, seems like the best news for the first round of the championship. In addition, the levels of degradation of the rubber were more than remarkable. Taking such good care of Pirelli compounds will be a pillar on which to build for the immediate future.

Fallows design

We’ve been experimenting a bit with the different settings. And we have always found positive things with all three, Alonso analyzed regarding the progress of a car that in the 2022 World Cup only surpassed Haas, AlphaTauri and Williams. To yesterday’s 80 laps of the Spanish, we had to add the 77 of Philip Drugovichsubstitute for Lance Stroll, injured in one hand after a bicycle accident. The rapid adaptation of the Brazilian during these tests multiplies his options of taking the start on March 5 on this same track.

In any case, Krack and his engineers will need several races to extract the maximum potential of the car. In this change in philosophy, it is worth highlighting the work of Fallows, the technical director, signed a few months ago after his successful stage at Red Bull, where he worked under the orders of the legendary Adrian Newley. One of the proofs that Fallows’s first solo design works lies in the porposing. Because that famous pitch at high speed that weighed so much on Sebastian Vettel in 2022 it has finally ceased to be a nuisance. There is no comparison with what happens to us. We’ve gotten rid of that for now, he acknowledged. Tom McColloughchief engineer at the futuristic Silverstone factory.