Aston Martin F1 ambassador Pedro de la Rosa says the team's position in F1's pecking order is hard to call, but the Spaniard ensures that the team's AMR23 was "really fast" during race simulations.
The Silverstone-based outfit caught the attention of its rivals in pre-season testing, with a car that was not only significantly different from its 2022 predecessor in terms of its design but was also fast and reliable in the hands of the always combative Fernando Alonso.
Several pundits went as far as to suggest that Aston is heading into next weekend's opening round in Bahrain as the third fastest team on the grid.
"That's a big statement, to say the third fastest," de la Rosa told the F1 Nation podcast. "I’m not sure.
"It’s going to be difficult to say until we get to the qualifying.
"It’s difficult to judge by single lap time, but then again if you look at the race simulations done by everyone, which is where we have to focus to get any performance evaluation of every team, we were really fast.
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"On the last long run, the race simulation that Fernando did on the last day, at night time when is basically when the race will happen, he was impressive.
"His degradation was minimal. He was not the fastest but was possibly one of the guys that managed to have less degradation.
"Why not? We have to aim high as well. We can’t keep playing the card that we are going to be beaten by every team.
"We are ambitious, we want to feel the work that everyone has been doing in the factory is relevant, is important. Why not. Third team, fourth team, let’s see."
De la Rosa stressed that while Aston obviously learned a lot about its 2023 contender in last week's test, it knows virtually nothing about its rivals.
"We have to play it down in a way, when we’re confident! In any case, it was a very interesting test", he added.
"As a team, we learned a lot but I’m sure every team learned a lot with the new regulations and the new tweaks in the floor height.
"We’ll see, it’s always the same in winter testing. You go there for three days, you do long runs, you do short runs, you drive five different compounds.
"What do you know? You know nothing about the competitors, you can only say where you are in respect to last season."
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