SAKHIR, Bahrain – Eight months after betting to move to Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso said he can’t believe he has a car to contend with for the podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix – even if Saturday’s qualifying performance didn’t quite deserve the hype over the past 24 hours.
Aston Martin’s pre-season slump led many to predict that they could turn F1’s Big Three into the Big Four this year, but Alonso’s pace of practice has fans dreaming of world champions twice have a car to challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull ahead.
The Spaniards underestimated those proposals and on Saturday night Red Bull emerged comfortable before the package.
Alonso qualified for the fifth round, behind two Ferraris but ahead of two Mercedes drivers.
Asked if he could fight for the podium on Sunday, Alonso laughed and said: “Let’s see!
“I’m laughing because I’m on the podium in race one… It feels too good to be true.
“It feels very strange to me to say that we are P5 and perhaps we are aiming for more. To be honest, we think the first three teams cannot touch this year with the advantage they have. was last year.
“Maybe try to lead the midfield or coordinate in the midfield… now we’re saying we start P5 and maybe we’ll fight the Ferraris for the podium. This is unbelievable. Keep working, keep your feet on the ground and hit your race goal in the best possible way, no mistakes, good start, good pit stop, watch them where are we?
“But yeah, right now we’re living a dream.”
Alonso’s decision to sign Aston Martin for this season until mid-2022, leaving fourth-placed Alpine to seventh-placed team, raised eyebrows at the time.
The Spaniard said this week the team knows they have something special on their hands, even if Red Bull always seems to be out of reach.
“It was amazing. The whole weekend was unreal for us. It was like it was too good to be true, every session and every performance of the car. In qualifying, our expectations were about half a second from Red Bull. . . . I think we’re half a second or a tenth of a second from Red Bull. So that’s absolutely true.
“I don’t know what to say because eight months ago the project was just a bet but now let’s race a brand new car, which I think still needs to open up a lot of potential to be in the top five, fighting Ferrari and Mercedes, that seems a bit far-fetched, but we’ll accept it for sure.”
Although widely regarded as one of the best drivers of the modern era, Alonso has not had a truly competitive car for a long time. His last pole position was at the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix, his last win at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
