by VALERIO BARRETTA
Alonso wasn't hiding: in Bahrain an Aston Martin was fifth force
In the lead-up to the 2024 World Championship, Fernando Alonso had lowered expectations for Aston Martin, stating that the car was not born “as well” as the AMR23. During the weekend in Sakhir, and up until qualifying, the Spaniard was however constantly in the top six positions, to the point of generating doubts that he had wanted to hide the true performance of the car with his “downbeat” statements.
The race pace shown in the tests, however, did not lie: Aston Martin had not impressed as well as Red Bull and (to a lesser extent) Ferrari, and it was not even at the level of Mercedes and McLaren. Ninth and tenth place in the inaugural race was therefore the natural placing of the two AMR24s.
Brundle's words
However, Alonso's attitude surprised several commentators as he was deemed too submissive during the duel. Among these is Martin Brundle: “Alonso seemed a little discouraged in Bahrain. In turn 4, when everyone was going to exploit the entire track, he didn't worry at all and kept within the normal race line“, this is the comment of the former English driver.
The Mercedes siren
Alonso, however pugnacious, would not have been able to do who knows what with an AMR24 inferior in terms of pace and moreover penalized by a wrong strategy, with a central stint that was too long. The two-time world champion, in a press conference, admitted that he will want to take the first races to decide his future in F1. A mediocre Aston Martin could put the bags in his hands in the direction of Mercedes, intent on replacing Lewis Hamilton with a top-level driver.
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