Fernando Alonso has been reborn and transformed by his decision to move to Aston Martin for 2023, although many originally thought it would prove to be a terrible choice - and even Alonso himself had doubts.
Alonso opted to quit Alpine just before the summer break last season, catching his bosses at Enstone by surprise with the announcement that he was off to their rivals.
The two-time former world champion revealed later that Alpine had appeared reluctant to extend his existing contract with them, and resistant to the idea of anything more than a one-year additional deal.
He was offered everything he wanted with a multi-year contract at Aston Martin and duly made the jump, although not without some qualms which he discussed with his agent and manager, former F1 team boss Flavio Briatore.
"I didn’t trust, you know, 100 per cent everything that the teams tell you in August," Alonso told Sky Sport's Martin Brundle on the grid in Miami on Sunday, adding that it was Lawrence Stroll's role that proved crucial.
"I think once Lawrence has a goal, he will get it," Alonso said about Canadian billionaire who led the conglomerate that bought up the defunct Force India squad and transformed it into today's Aston Martin operation.
“He will succeed eventually, you know. It may take two years, five, or seven, but he will get it," Alonso explained about Stroll.
“Flavio was quite keen on the Aston Martin project. I think he saw the investment, he saw the vision of Lawrence, which obviously he is a very important leader we have in the team.
“I think we've known each other for now 12 years," he said. “I liked his way of having no limits. I think Lawrence has a leadership that I think is quite contagious and everyone in the team is believing what he thinks.
"With a Formula 1 team, you need to have this kind of boss and one voice that sets the direction," he added.
It's certainly paid off. Aston finished last season in seventh place in the championship, but five races into 2023 they are up to second place behind Red Bull, and Alonso had been on the podium on four occasions.
Almost as surprising is the warm relationship that's sprung up between Alonso and his young team mate Lance Stroll, son of the team owner.
Alonso is known to be punishing on the drivers racing alongside him - his feud with Lewis Hamilton in their year together at McLaren is the stuff of legend. But the feeling couldn't be any different at Aston.
“I like this team and also my role in the team, I’m aware of my role perfectly fine, and I accept it," he said, indicating that his mentoring of Lance - whom he first knew as a kid competing in karting - is very much part of the plan.
“I’m at the end of my career. I expect Lance will lead the team for the next ten or 15 years, and I want to help the team - and I want to help Lance - as much as I can while I’m driving.”
It's nonetheless surprising to see Alonso go the extra mile to help out a team mate by sharing brake balance settings in Baku, and making a point of complimenting "a great move" by Stroll on Alex Albon on lap 49 in Miami.
"I think this circuit we have big TV screens out of some of the slow-speed corners," Alonso explained when asked how he had known about the move during the race when ht wasn't in the vicinity at the time.
"It was very easy to follow the race on TV," he added. "I saw one overtake to the Alpines, or to the Alfa Romeo and I was just curious which position it was."
He'd had the time to tune in because his own afternoon had proved to be "a little bit of an unexpected lonely race for us, we were thinking to have a more difficult race."
While Max Verstappen couldn't resist a recent dig at Alonso starting a new career as Stroll's 'life coach', there's no sign of Alonso softening up when it comes to his performance behind the wheel of the AMR23.
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough said last month that Alonso had accelerated the team's development: “His motivation, his desire, his experience and his knowledge, he’s pushing us all really hard”.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
