Fernando Alonso warns: “This is just the beginning” as the two time Formula 1 champion veteran alludes to some huge spending by Aston Martin in order to develop the brand new AMR23 even further. Meanwhile, this website has been given information alluding to a huge budget cap scandal that would enable Mercedes and now Aston Martin to bring forth radical car developments this year.
After taking his first podium with his new Aston Martin F1 team, Fernando Alonso is already warning his rivals that there is more to come with a car that will change a lot over the course of the season.
Fernando Alonso has sent a clear message to his rivals after his podium finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix, saying there is more to come from Aston Martin in the next few races on the calendar.
At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso finished third in his first race with his new Aston Martin team, the two-time world champion crossing the line 38 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen.
More development to come…
After the race finish, Alonso made no secret of his delight at having a competitive car in his hands, but the Spanish driver insisted there was still more to come from his team as the AMR23 still has huge room for improvement as the 2023 car is almost entirely new. Many are still scratching their heads as to how the Aston Martin team has a totally new car that is so quick, especially considering the two years finishing in a lowly seventh place.
“There are some areas we need to improve and I won’t share with you, but I think the most important point is that the new Aston Martin is a brand new car,” Alonso explained in Bahrain on Sunday.
“It’s a new project and this is just the beginning. It’s not the final version, it’s just the starting car of this concept that we changed over the winter.”
“Some of the top teams have kept the philosophy they had last year; Red Bull and Ferrari have kept more or less the same shape. They’ve just tweaked a few things and perfected the baseline they had.”
“For us, it’s much more difficult because we had to change 95% of the car [from 2022], so I guess we have more to learn from the car and there’s more to come from our side.”
“I have full confidence in our team, they know what they are doing, and hopefully we will improve soon.”
Budget cap scandal
One very possible reason for the team to bring out a totally new car and straight away run at the front end of the grid could be down to spending. Lawrence Stroll has brought in a huge amount of money to Aston Martin, and just like the very top teams, has seemingly joined the ‘open secret’ club of big spender in Formula 1.
Several sources within the biggest teams, including Aston Martin, have disclosed information to this website about the deliberate hiding of wages to retain the huge staff numbers working in the team, whilst negating the very restrictive budget cap.
A source within Aston Martin has said to this website:
“168 members of AMRF1 staff were moved over to a company called Formtech,” says the insider,
…they are all still in the same jobs wearing AMR uniform with all the job perks and bonuses but not on AMR F1 budget. They also all received a £5000 “bonus” which was paid at the end of October 2021, another £5000 will be paid at the end of October 2022 to anyone who has stayed on for the 12 months.”
“Fast forward to 2022 more staff were moved again but this time to “Aston Martin GP Services Limited” again same job roles etc etc but without the £5000 “bonus”…” claims the disgruntled employee of Aston Martin,
“In total this is around 200 people doing the exact same jobs, wearing the AMR F1 green uniform, the only difference is the bank account they’re paid from…”
B-spec cars in the pipeline
If this is true, then we could expect to see a very fast development of both Aston Martin and also Mercedes who have now openly admitted that radical changes to their car is coming this year.
Quite how any team would be able to spend that much within the budget cap is anyone’s guess.
In the meantime, Aston Martin continues to wow the F1 fans for its Ferrari and Mercedes embarrassing levels of performance.
After the opening round of the 2023 season in Bahrain, Fernando Alonso is third in the drivers’ world championship, three places behind Sergio Perez.
READ MORE: Wolff deflects Aston Martin discussion away from real story
Toto and Hamilton are so focussed on the 8th title that they would break any rules, including the cost cap, to get it. After all the noise made by Toto and the false charges thrown by him about “massive overspending” last year, the only right punishment for Mercedes’ breaking cost cap, even by $1, would be to withdraw all points scored by them and ban them for a year. Nothing less would do for the cheats MB and Toto.
But you know how it is at FIA. They may let MB off the hook.
Quite right, type amended