«They said I was boiled over… Ferrari? He will be fast in Jeddah, but he has to finish the races first»- Corriere.it

At 41, the revelation of the F1 World Championship with Aston Martin. Immediately on the podium in the first race in Bahrain and with a great desire to return here in Jeddah, in the Saudi Arabian GP. I’ll only know if I succeed on Sunday evening, the fact that we weren’t particularly fast on the forehand also depends on the choices of the rear wings. still very soon, we don’t have all the pieces available yet. And that goes for all teams, not just us. Today’s free practice will be like a test.

Have we copied Red Bull? Nonsense

The Aston Martin ended up in the whirlwind of chatter, the top management of Red Bull (including Helmut Marko, but also the second driver, Sergio Perez) made fun of the similarity of certain solutions. The result of a transfer of ideas brought by the many who left the Milton Keynes team to move to the Stroll stables, among them Adrian Newey’s number 2 two, Dan Fallows. Alonso rejects veiled accusations of plagiarism: The efforts to build this car have been enormous. I don’t care about some comments. You can see with the naked eye that they are two different single-seaters (the Red Bull and the Aston Martin ed). Mercedes says we have 50% of their car (engine gearbox, rear axle, gearbox ed) and Red Bull the other 50%. But how possible? Such different projects could never coexist, the truth is that we had a different idea from all the others and that we have many talents within the team. If we do well here we could do well on all tracks.

Stroll a leader, Briatore reminds me

Alonso then underlines the importance of owner Lawrence Stroll in relaunching Aston Martin and compares him to Flavio Briatore, the manager with whom he won two World Cups at Renault (2005 and 2006): He has a great vision, he wants to win. Whatever you need, whatever the price. When he gets something into his head he turns it into a success. a true leader, team with him in safe hands. He reminds me a lot of Flavio Briatore, charismatic and has a special ability to understand people. And he has the strength to lead such complex organizations. Only Flavio and Lawrence have the strength to be heard by 1000 people, they are respected

They said I was boiled…

As for his 41 years, Alonso removes a few pebbles from his shoe: Many people believed that I was in a dark tunnel of my career that had lasted for decades. Yet I had been world champion in endurance, I had fought last year for podiums with Alpine. I have never felt uncompetitive. Now I feel more confidence, but until you win it doesn’t change much. Third or eleventh, what’s the difference? Either you win or you lose.

The stoccatina at Ferrari: First he has to finish the races

As for Ferrari, his old team with which he came close to the World Cup twice (in 2010 and 2012 ed), Nando expects it to be more competitive: Its strengths are speed on the straight and in fast corners, and here I expect it to be very strong. But he has to finish the races: Charles was very strong in Bahrain and now he has 15 points less than us. It’s one thing to be fast and another to score points.