Fernando Alonso takes aim at Alpine: ‘Aston Martin are not happy with fourth’

Fernando Alonso has taken a subtle dig at his former team Alpine by complimenting Aston Martin for not being happy with fourth.

Alonso emerged from F1 retirement to return to the grid and Alpine in 2021, but as time went on, he increasingly found himself at odds with the French outfit.

The two have since parted ways with Alonso opting to take up Sebastian Vettel’s former seat at Aston Martin while Pierre Gasly took the Spaniard’s seat at Alpine, but Alonso could not resist the opportunity to criticise his former team.

When speaking about what makes Aston Martin different, Alonso commented that they were a team not “happy with fourth.”

“Everyone here is humble,” he told media including PlanetF1.com ahead of the AMR23 launch. “Everyone here is hungry for success.

“Maybe they need experience [of] fighting for wins regularly or championships or podiums every weekend but they trust in themselves. They have self confidence and they know that they can achieve that.

“This is very different compared to any other team that I joined in the last few occasions where maybe they had success in the past and they were just in a comfortable position. They finished fourth and they were happy with fourth. They finished fifth and they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh, it was a celebration.

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“Here there are no celebrations until we win and this is very appealing.”

That was not the only time Alonso seemed to reference his former team and said since he arrived at Aston Martin, his demand for everyone giving 100 percent had been matched.

“I’m very demanding in everything that I do,” the 41-year-old said. “I expect a lot from people that I work with, I give my 100% and expect the same from the people that I work with.

“Since the first day in Aston Martin, I felt exactly the same values from the people around me.

“Obviously, we have the leadership of Lawrence [Stroll] that I have known for many years now. He had a lot of success in many different things and many different projects in his life.

“There is no doubt that Formula 1 will not be different, he will succeed sooner or later.

“So that’s something that is very motivating for the new people that join the team.”