F1 | Alonso: “Unexpected to be so competitive with the new package”

Fernando Alonso can smile. The new technical package introduced at Suzuka seems to have made Aston Martin take a decisive step forward, which in the first three races of the season had quite clearly appeared to be the fifth force in the field, speaking of Manufacturers.

In qualifying for the Japanese GP, however, the Asturian climbed up to fifth position, putting himself behind a McLaren, a Ferrari and both Mercedes, with the second row just a matter of thousandths away. A leap forward that Fernando himself did not hide went even further than expected.

“Yesterday I had the old package, today I had the new one. Tonight we will have the data to confirm it and to quantify the improvements, but everything went well in qualifying. In fact, to be honest, it's a bit unexpected to be so competitive”, he said Alonso after qualifying.

“Just a couple of hundredths from Sainz's Ferrari. Leclerc is behind us, as are Piastri and the Mercedes. Six months ago here we were a second and a half from pole position and now we are four tenths away”, he added, underlining the big step forward made in the space of a few months (in 2023 Suzuka was raced in October).

The suspicion of the two-time world champion is that tomorrow his “green” may return to the ranks, because the seasonal trend is that the AMR24 is generally more competitive on Saturdays than on Sundays.

“Looking at the first three races, we were very strong on Saturday, but not so strong on Sunday. Maybe it's not our position to be in the top five. If I'm overtaken by Oscar (Piastri) and the Mercedes, I think it's normal and that we'll get back in in our position.”

“Let's see what we can do. I'm very open to whatever the race holds for us. I'm extremely proud and happy with the work we did today, but tomorrow is another day.”

Then he reiterated the concept, explaining that qualifying was often a bit “lying” this year: “It's true that this year we're all very close in qualifying. We have Hulkenberg and Bottas who are three tenths behind today, which it's an incredible thing. Then in the race you can see the true value of the cars.”

“We are also very competitive on Saturdays and not so much on Sundays. Therefore, our true value is what you see on Sundays. On Saturdays, also thanks to the grip of the tyres, some problems are masked”, he concluded.