Alonso Feels “pleased” With Strong Start At Aston Martin In F1 Pre-Season Testing

Fernando Alonso has admitted to feeling “pleased” with his strong start at Aston Martin on Day One of 2023 F1 Pre-Season Testing.

Having opted to run in the afternoon session, Alonso finished second-fastest overall across both sessions on the opening day of the test in Bahrain, albeit just 0.029 seconds shy of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Speaking post-session, Alonso said that he was “pleased” with managing 60 of Aston Martin’s 100 laps in total – in which Felipe Drugovich achieved 40 laps in the morning after Lance Stroll withdrew earlier this week due to injury.

Alonso though added that there are still experiments taking place to understand the car’s behaviour in full as he added: “We are still experimenting with lots of different things, so every lap we do is important and we learn something new about the car every time we go out.”

Despite finishing second on the timesheet, Alonso iterated that these are “intriguing” early days of the season with teams running to various programmes, in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their cars.

Drugovich meanwhile recovered from an early electronical issue which caused a red flag inside the opening half-hour, having been called up to replace Stroll for this test and could feature in the season-opening Grand Prix if the Canadian is declared unfit for next weekend.

Reflecting on his first chance to drive the AMR23 for the first time, Drugovich described the experience as “great” as he prepares to spend this season largely watching on as reserve driver.

Drugovich added that he felt comfortable back behind the wheel as he continued: “I spent a few laps at the beginning of the day familiarising myself with being back behind the wheel, but I felt like I got up to speed quickly and before long I was back in a good rhythm.”

The Brazilian largely focused on “aerodynamic testing,” from which he “gathered some valuable data” for the team to use, yet was allowed to attempt “a few push laps” which ultimately saw him finish 14th overall on the timesheet once the day’s running was complete.