Alonso believes in Mercedes catching up declaring that “they are getting better”. With only 56 points from the first three races, Mercedes experienced its worst start to the season in ten years. The last time the Silver Arrows had fewer points at this point of the year was after the first three races of the 2013 season.

At that time, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg only scored 52 points. Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso nevertheless believes that Mercedes will soon be in a position to win races in Formula 1 again.

“If you read their comments, it makes you think they have a car that can’t make it to Q3. But I don’t think it’s that bad,” smiles the Spaniard with regard to some of the statements made by Hamilton and Wolff.

 

 

Mercedes catching up like 2022?

“It does the opposite of what we want,” Hamilton said about the Mercedes W14 before the Australian Grand Prix, for example. He still finished second on Sunday, taking the first podium finish for the Silver Arrows this year.

For Alonso, it is no surprise that Mercedes was up front in Melbourne and even led the race at times.

“No. I think in Jeddah they were within a tenth of a second of us on the pace on Sunday,” he recalls.

 

True, the two-time world champion concedes that Mercedes are currently “not as good as Red Bull”. But: “Nobody has a car that is close to Red Bull,” Alonso points out and adds: “They are getting better and will soon be a candidate for victories.”

The Spaniard draws a comparison with last year, when Mercedes also experienced a difficult start to the season.

“They still won a race after a very bad start,” he recalls of George Russell’s victory in Brazil in 2022.

 

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Aston Martin confirms it is a front runner

In fact, Mercedes was Best of the Rest behind Red Bull for the first time at Albert Park in 2023. This position had still been held by Alonso in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively.

“In Bahrain we were a bit surprised by the pace in the winter test,” he admits.

“It seemed too good to be true. But we confirmed it in Jeddah and now we’ve confirmed it here [in Australia] as well,” the Aston Martin driver says of his own pace at the start of the year and the big jump over the winter.

 

 

“We’re more aligned with the top teams at the weekends now. […] It’s changed our tyre choice for qualifying, and the runs you do in qualifying don’t have to be so crazy anymore because you know you’re going to get through Q1 and Q2,” he reveals.

That makes “things a little easier”, says the Spaniard, who is able to fight for podiums on a regular basis for the first time since his Formula 1 comeback.

“I was hoping that 2023 would be a season to learn,” the 41-year-old reveals.

 

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Thought we would fight with Mercedes in 2024

For 2024, he then said he had hoped to be able to fight with the top teams.

“But we already challenged them in Bahrain in the first race, so of course everything looks more optimistic now,” Alonso said after three third places in three races.

 

“But now we have to deliver,” the two-time world champion also knows. “From Baku, Imola and Barcelona onwards, teams will start putting upgrades on the car. And we have to be a top team in that respect as well,” he demands.

 

Aston Martin still has many things to learn in order to hopefully be able to attack the front in 2024. Until then, it would probably already be a success to continue fighting with Mercedes and Co. for the best position behind Red Bull.

Because since Alonso believes Mercedes will win again in the near future, logic would dictate that this would also apply to Aston Martin…?

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