Aston Martin has established itself has a front-runner in F1 in the first two races of the season, but winning a race in 2023 will take a misstep from Red Bull according to Fernando Alonso.
Aston Martin hit the ground running in pre-season testing in Bahrain, following up its warm-up with a podium finish for Alonso in F1's opening round at Sakhir, the Spaniard outpacing both Ferrari and Mercedes' chargers on merit.
And in Jeddah last weekend, Aston was once again the strongest contender in the field behind Red Bull, a result that demonstrated that the performance of its AMR23 two weeks earlier in Bahrain had been no fluke.
"I think this weekend confirmed [our performance level]," said Aston team boss Mike Krack in Saudi Arabia.
"I think we need to be careful with such conclusions. We have two data samples, from two completely different tracks. And in these two tracks, we were competitive, but there are some others.
"And we must also not underestimate it, because it's a relative game, it could also be that one of the competitors has had issues that we are not aware of, and that could remix the order.
"So I think we need to wait and see. Ask me again at the end of the season!"
Despite Aston's remarkable step forward this season, beating Red Bull fair and squad remains beyond the team's current capabilities. However, Alonso is convinced that Aston will pull off a win at some point, but with the unwilling cooperation of its rival from Milton Keynes.
"We need some help from them, but it will happen eventually when they cannot finish always first and second," commented the Spaniard, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"One day it's a pitstop, one day it's a gearbox. Max had it [in qualifying] and if he had it [in the race] he would have had to retire the car.
"So, there's going to be some circuits where maybe reliability or whatever could help us and hopefully in those races, we take the opportunity."
Although race winner Sergio Perez was out of reach in Jeddah, Alonso feels that Red Bull's leading margin was slightly smaller last weekend, or perhaps Aston had slightly reduced the gap to its rival.
"A little bit closer," he said. "In Bahrain, they were, if they push, very far ahead. Here, they were ahead. They were untouchable for sure, but a little bit closer.
"So, that was good. We led the race so we have the first picture of Aston Martin leading the Formula 1 field for two laps."
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