Fernando Alonso says aiming for a podium in Bahrain in his first race with Aston Martin "feels too good to be true", but the Spaniard will nevertheless embrace the opportunity enthusiastically.
Alonso carried into Saturday's final practice the strong from displayed so far by Aston Martin, the revelation of the start of the F1 season.
However, it was a step too far to hope that the two-time world champion would be a contender for pole. But P5 in qualifying and some handy strategy and tyre management by Aston's pitwall suggest that the combative Spaniard could be in line for a podium in Sunday's race.
"Let's see, yes. I'm laughing because going for a podium in race one... it feels too good to be true," commented Alonso with a big smile.
"But for sure, what we saw so far on our car, and also historically Aston Martin has a very good tyre management. So yeah, if we have an opportunity for sure, we will take it."
Aston and Alonso hit the ground running in pre-season testing and picked on Friday where they had left off last week. But the F1 veteran says that mixing it with the big guns – Red Bull and Ferrari – at the head of the field still seems "a but unreal".
"In practice we knew that we were around third or fifth or fourth," he said.
"It was amazing. The whole weekend has been unreal for us. It was like too good to be true every session and every performance of the car.
"And then in qualifying, our expectation was to be around half a second from Red Bull, so it was quite right."
Alonso admits that he headed into his debut season with Aston with the ambition of running among F1's top midfield contenders, just behind the usual suspects, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
"Again, it feels so strange for me to say that we start P5 and maybe we are aiming for more," he added.
"Because we thought to be honest that the first three teams were untouchable this year with the advantage they had last year, and maybe we try to lead the midfield mix.
"But now we're saying that we start P5 and maybe we fight with the Ferraris for the podium, so this is just incredible.
"So yeah, let's keep working, keep the feet in the ground and execute the race the best way possible.
"No mistakes. Good start, good stops, and let's see where we are. But so far, we are living our dream."
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