Alonso, Aston Martin pushing for more after “best race” yet

As special as they have been, Fernando Alonso has admitted he and Aston Martin are beginning to grow tired of third place and want more.

For the fourth time in five races in 2023, Alonso lifted the P3 trophy at Miami after what he described as his “best race” of the season.

The only time the Spaniard has not stood on the rostrum was Azerbaijan when he fell short by just 0.8s to Charles Leclerc.

Four trophies from five attempts is not a bad strike rate for a team that had only had 12 podiums in the 15 seasons since becoming Force India back in 2008.

Alonso said the satisfaction of a podium remained sweet, but admitted he would love to climb even further up the podium despite Red Bull appearing “unbreakable”.

“I think at the beginning of the year a podium was amazing (but) now after four podiums we obviously want more and at least a second place,” he said.

“But at the moment it did not happen because Red Bull is better than us – stronger, faster and the reliability has always been outstanding.

“The two Red Bulls are always unbreakable, but if one day there is a crack there, we need to make sure we are in that position and not making mistakes at any point in the weekend.

“Maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility.”

As incredible an Alonso win, especially on home turf would be, he admitted Aston Martin’s main focus is retaining P2 in the constructors championship and keeping heavyweights Ferrari and Mercedes behind.

As the more famous and successful teams have battled inconsistency, Alonso and Aston Martin have shown how strong their package is by consistently outperforming the more fancied opposition.

Despite car #14 scoring another podium, team-mate Lance Stroll had a pointless weekend at Miami, which has meant Mercedes now sits just six points behind in the constructors championship.

Even though Alonso stated Miami as the team’s best performance of the season, he said there is still work to do to keep Mercedes and Ferrari at bay with Red Bull the runaway leader.

“The gap (to Red Bull) is quite big even though I think Miami has been our best race pace yet in the season,” he said. 

“We finished closest to the leaders with no safety cars, and we’re still quite fast.

“Some of the upgrades that we will bring later in the season might put us in a different or more competitive position, but I think our main focus is just looking behind and trying to keep Mercedes and Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship under control. 

“I think we have to accept Red Bull are doing a better job than everyone else and we need to do a better job.”

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