Energised Fernando Alonso ‘infecting all of us’ at Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso appears to have a real pep in his step at Aston Martin, and that positive “wave” is extending to his team.

It is easy to understand why Alonso is loving life as an Aston Martin driver so much right now, with his switch to the Silverstone-based squad already looking like a masterstroke as Formula 1 returns to action in Saudi Arabia.

It was at the Bahrain season-opener where Alonso proved that Aston Martin were indeed on form as testing had suggested, Alonso qualifying P5 before overtaking the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, plus Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on race day to claim a podium finish on his Aston Martin debut.

The pass on Sainz in particular received a hyped-up response from Alonso over the radio, a race where from his radio messages alone, it was clear that Alonso was in his element at the wheel of that AMR23.

And Alonso was still very much on a high come the opening day of on-track action at Round 2 of F1 2023, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he was once again the fastest non-Red Bull driver in FP1, settling back into that P3 spot.

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And ex-F1 driver turned Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle spoke of when he has seen Alonso around the paddock, he sees a driver who right now is so “animated” and “energised”, whichever member of the team that he is talking to struggling to get a word in.

And Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack said that the Silverstone squad are indeed on this “wave” with Alonso, the two-time World Champion a “very inspiring” figure for the team.

“Yeah, this is true,” Krack told Sky Sports F1 in response to Brundle’s Alonso observation. “And it’s infecting all of us to be honest. It’s like we are riding on the wave it feels like and him especially.

“And I think you heard lots on the radio during the race [in Bahrain], you know how he was putting himself into this mode.

“And it’s very good for us. He is very inspiring, he pushes the team forward like that. And everybody is just really flat out trying to do as much as possible.”