Watching Fernando Alonso almost bouncing on the spot, an irrepressible grin plastered over his face, was an enormously endearing moment with which to open the 2023 Formula One season.
He and his Aston Martin team had pulled off a brilliant coup at the season opener in Bahrain; Alonso was on the podium and Aston had taken the most improbable seat at FI's top table.
Having finished seventh in 2022, impotent at the back of the field, Aston Martin's form at the Sakhir circuit was revelatory. Alonso was third behind the two dominant Red Bulls, but he had comfortably beaten both Mercedes and Ferrari. Nor was it a flash in the pan. Where Ferrari and Mercedes had stuttered to a start, Aston had hit the ground running.
Alonso went on to take six podiums from the opening eight races.
It was almost an F1 fairytale but one destined to be denied a happy ending. As the season progressed they were caught and passed by Mercedes and Ferrari and then, with a late season surge, by McLaren too. They could not match the two big teams' rate of development, they faced infrastructure challenges as well as unexpected technical complications, and finished in fifth place.
It might be considered a dispiriting end to what had opened with such verve but Alonso and the team believe it was an encouraging stepping stone for 2024, which begins in Bahrain on 2 March, the first race of a mammoth 24-meeting season. Optimism is high at Aston Martin and the goal remains a breakthrough into competing at the very front.
この記事は The Guardian の January 04, 2024 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は The Guardian の January 04, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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