Will Aston Martin be back in the fight for the podium? McLaren is an inspiration, says Alonso, praising the giant progress made during the season

Will Aston Martin return to the podium? Fernando Alonso has weighed in on his team’s fluctuating performance, having regularly struggled for podium finishes in the opening races. But now Aston Martin is only the fifth fastest team in terms of performance. The Spanish legend says the team must also take its cue from McLaren.

Six podiums in the first third of the season, namely four third places and two second places – that’s a very good card for Fernando Alonso. Aston Martin was one of the teams that made the biggest progress in terms of performance.

But in Austria, the turning point came. Since the Red Bull Ring, Alonso has only scored one podium, in the Dutch Grand Prix, where he finished second. Aston simply ran out of breath, developmentally unable to keep up with the elite trio of teams (Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes).

This is also evidenced by some of the experienced Spaniard’s finishes – seventh in Great Britain, ninth in Hungary and Italy, as high as fifteenth in Singapore and in the last Japanese Grand Prix he reached his real best – eighth place.

In short, Aston Martin has fallen off in performance, after all this team does not yet have the background of the aforementioned elite three. Just since Austria, however, Aston Martin has replaced McLaren in the top team category.

McLaren’s giant leap

The latter started the season absolutely horrifically, but since the Red Bull Ring, the British team has deployed countless upgrades that have worked fantastically. In today’s world of Formula 1, McLaren has taken a truly gigantic step forward.

McLaren’s amazing work was crowned in the recent Japanese Grand Prix when Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri claimed a double podium. That’s second and third place. And they can easily repeat that result in the upcoming Qatar round.

A team that was one of the absolute weakest at the start of the season has become an elite team that even has what it takes to overtake Max Verstappen for the top spot in the next grand prix.

McLaren’s fat points haul at Suzuka, meanwhile, has already stretched Aston’s lead in fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup to 49 points.

Can Aston Martin take inspiration from McLaren?

“Of course, there are a lot of different things in every car in terms of set-up, and in terms of different experiments (which are different for every race). But we take notes, we learn and we also look at what our competitors – especially McLaren – are doing,” Alonso told Racing News 365.

“There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes during busy race weekends. Anyway, the great strides they (McLaren) have made – there’s a lot to look at, a lot to take example from. It’s an inspiration for next year as well,” the double world champion concluded.

Source: F1, Racing News 365