Aston Marrtin has unveiled a car that new F1 recruit Fernando Alonso will race alongside Lance Stroll in 2023.
Two-time champion Alonso, the oldest driver on the grid at the age of 41, joined the team in place of Sebastian Vettel, who retired at the end of last season.
Alonso, who last won the title in 2006 and an F1 race in 2013, is looking to return to title contention during his three-year contract with Aston Martin as the team promises big things.
The team is nearing completion on a brand new facility at their Silverstone headquarters, and team boss Lawrence Stroll – Lance’s father – wants to turn him into a legitimate championship contender.
Despite being away from competitive engineering for a long time, Alonso is widely regarded as one of the best drivers of the modern F1 era, and his arrival was a strong statement of intent from Aston Martin and Stroll about how serious those ambitions are.
Alonso wants to claim his elusive 33rd win – and possibly a third championship – with his new team in the future, but says no one on the team is keen on their chances in the short term.
“I am very motivated and very happy with what I see,” Alonso said. “This team is unhappy with fourth place, this team is unhappy with third, this team is unhappy with second. This is how I feel being here. But they don’t give unrealistic expectations, they know where we are.
“We know that last year only three teams finished on the same lap with the leader, they were Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes. Everyone finished one lap behind, including Alpine or McLaren who finished fourth in the championship. We know these gaps in the Formula. One of them is difficult to overcome in one or two months. But let’s see if we can have a good season, have fun, have good reliability and make sure the team gets better as the season goes on.”
Aston Martin’s ambition is also evident in the design of the 2023 car.
The team is also signing senior staff from rival teams and this year Dan Fallows has moved from Red Bull as technical director.
Dubbed the AMR23, the car represents a clear change from its 2022 predecessor with a new front wing and a more aggressively designed side and engine shroud.
Fallows said 90 percent of the car is different from last year.
“The development team has been adamant that they want to abide by these rules uncompromisingly,” Fallows said at Monday’s presentation. “We want to move up the grid and start challenging the teams up ahead – and you can’t do that by sitting back and being conservative.
“The AMR23 is a significant improvement on a vehicle that we have refined in the second half of 2022 and we have improved it in all critical areas. It optimizes solutions that we believe will give us the greatest performance and embodies our shared vision. embraced and built together in recent months.”
Source: www.espn.com
