Fernando Alonso got off to an unbelievable start to 2023 in his maiden season with the Aston Martin F1 team, but the squad struggled over the latter half of the campaign.
Alonso achieved six podiums from the opening eight races of last year, and could potentially have won at Monaco if not for a controversial choice of tyre when rain started to fall.
It was a remarkable surge in form for the team formerly known as Racing India and before that Force India, thanks to huge new investment from a consortium led by billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll.
The decline in performance in later races led many to wonder just how sustainable the team's surge would be heading into 2024, but Alonso himself had few doubts that they were on the right path.
“I see only positives,” he said when asked to look back at 2023. "Those struggles, I think, are part of the job and part of the journey of this team.
“We started really strong with a car that was, surprisingly maybe, more competitive. Even to us, the step from last year to this year [was a surprise].
“We found ourselves maybe in a position that we were not ready for it," he suggested. "Fighting with Mercedes, Ferrari, you know, top teams. They're used to fighting at that level.
“We are not at the top level yet,” he admitted. "We maybe stepped back a little bit in terms of development and in the car during the season.
While Aston Martin were in second place in the constructors' championship at the start of the year, it finished down in a somewhat disappointing fifth place having fallen behind the late-surging McLaren.
“We found ourselves a little bit less competitive [toward the end]," Alonso admitted. "But all in all I think it was unthinkable 12 months ago, at this stage, to think about the campaign we did.
“I remember perfectly the first test [in 2022] with the team after the season finale,” he added. “If someone had told me me that we would be in this position we are today, I wouldn't have believed it.”
Alonso himself managed to pick up fourth place in the drivers standings behind Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton, having finished equal on points with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
That was the two-time world champion's best overall season performance since he himself drove for Ferrari in 2013.
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Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso
