When Fernando Alonso revealed that he would be joining Aston Martin from the 2023 season onwards, not many expected him to fight the top teams. However, the Silverstone-based outfit has been the surprise package of the season in its initial phases. Red Bull chief Helmut Marko, however, feels that his team deserves credit for the same.
In an interview with Sky Germany, Marko spoke about how so many engineers left Red Bull over the winter to join Aston Martin. One of the names he mentioned was Dan Fallows, who was the head of aerodynamics at the Milton-Keynes-based outfit. Marko also added a comment, that would explain how Aston Martin made such big strides in a relatively short time span.
“It looks like they all have a good memory,” the 79-year-old said. Marko tried to say that Aston Martin’s recent success was down to the ex-Red Bull engineers joining them and implementing what they learned with the Austrian squad.
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Aston Martin was previously accused of copying Red Bull car
This is not the first time Aston Martin has been accused of copying the design of another car. In fact, this isn’t even the first time for a team owned by Lawrence Stroll. In 2020, Stroll’s team, then known as Racing Point, was accused of copying Mercedes’ W10.
Last year too, fans and pundits pointed out striking similarities between the AMR-22 and Red Bull’s RB-18. Both times, they denied these accusations but now, Marko is trying to bring this narrative up yet again.
This time, design-wise, the AMR-23 is not strikingly similar to any other car, and the team insists that their strong pace is down to the hard work put in by their workers over the winter break. Marko, however, wants most of this credit to go Red Bull’s way.
Fernando Alonso hoping for big success with new team
Alonso is currently 41 years old, but is showing no signs of slowing down. The Spaniard has stated on multiple occasions that he is not in F1 just for the sake of it, and wants to compete for race wins and titles once again.
His strong pace in free practice gave his fans hope that he can compete for pole position or a race win in Bahrain, but he managed to muster just P5. This is tremendous progress when compared to last season, but Alonso is adamant that they can do even better with upgrades set to arrive in the upcoming races.
For now, Alonso is cautiously optimistic about his chances this season, but his main focus is to get as many points for the team as possible.
