Aston Martin F1

For ONCE in his career, Alonso jumped teams at the opportune time. Only took a couple of decades lol

Go Nando!!!!!

 

Or any driver who got the opportunity to walk into F1..............without anyone assisting them or hiring them

 

Astonishing results!

 

It makes you wonder how much has come from the pick ups of former Red Bull employees. How much is because of Vettel's input from 2022. How much is from Alonso since Jan of 2023, and even Lance Stroll. Im sure big Stroll's fat wallet has something to do with it, but what key moves did he make in the last couple of years made the difference on this specific car?

 

You mean back markers like Benetton and Ferrari and Mac? LOL. Sure, he made poor choices and worse timing when switching teams but at 41 years he is still better than 90% of the field.


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Best and most complete driver overall.

 

And what is the point here? Every single win is supported by thousands of invisible hands.

 

Curiosity. It's a hugely impressive feat what Aston Martin has done. They have made enormous gains over the winter. I'm curious how much was a result of these individuals, if at all.

 

Agree. Its actually historic for all involved.

 

Why Lance in reality is non-existent in this team lol - https://f1i.com/news/471132-hill-id-get-alonso-to-defend-me-in-a-murder-charge.html

Hill: 'I'd get Alonso to defend me in a murder charge!'
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Phillip van Osten 06/04/2023 at 15:51

Damon Hill praised Fernando Alonso for the Aston Martin driver's remarkable sharpness and presence of mind amid the chaos that unfolded on the second restart in Melbourne last weekend.

As cars veered off course or into the gravel trap at the first corner after the second red flag, Alonso was tagged into spin by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

The Aston charger survived the contact but as he collected himself, the Spaniard fell from third all the way to the back of the field.

No sooner had Alonso got going than there was carnage up ahead as both Alpine drivers eliminated themselves, a crash that brought out the second red flag of the day.

However, while many believed that the cars would line up behind the safety car in the order in which they had survived the commotion, Alonso radioed in to signal to his crews that the order should be rolled back to the grid positions at the restart, referring to last year's British Grand Prix as a precedent.

This proved to be the correct procedure, but Hill was amazed by Alonso's vigilance and alertness.

"We were making a joke that he should be a lawyer," Hill joked on the F1 Nation podcast. "I'd get him to defend me in a murder charge!"

"It's boring driving the car, he needs something else to do. He's going around going, 'Can I do the strategy as well? Give me more information.'

"He already understands the rules. You'd expect someone who's been in Formula 1 as long as he has and had all the experiences to have learned something, but you can't automatically assume that."

Hill noted that Alonso's savviness was not unlike the farsighted intelligence of one Michael Schumacher.

"He's invested in this, he understands it, and he knows, like Michael Schumacher as well," added the 1996 F1 World Champion.

"Michael Schumacher understood where the openings were, where the opportunities were, and he took advantage of those, and it's the same with Fernando.

"He's got to become a team boss eventually, because he'd be brilliant. He just understands this game."

 

AM (before it was called AM) copied the dominant Merc and moved up field.
Now AM copies the RB and moves up field.

This illustrates the value of copying the fastest design over following the drivers inputs.
It took Michael 3-4 years of input to put Ferrari at the front of the field for 5 years--and this was with unlimited budgets and unlimited testing.

 

Their 2020 car was more than a copy. The geometry of pretty much the entire car was nearly identical. They underperformed badly with that car if you ask me. The 2023 car has the same design as RBR, but at least you can tell it was built by them.

 

Not true in absolute.
The car isn’t a championship contender.

 

What a nice PR statement.
Of course Vettel had zero or close to zero influence on performance level of this year’s car.

 

Well, at least he changed for the better. The last time he did that was in 2010.

Now that I´m thinking about it, contrary to the general thinking and my own, Alonso didn´t get his choices so wrong.

Renault instead of Ferrari => Good, At Ferrari he would have to be Schumacher´s #2, and in the end Renault got it right.
Leaving Renault for McLaren => Good, just left Renault before it sunk.
Returning to Renault => Bad. Although he probably hadn´t other option after the **** up at McLaren.
Renault to Ferrari => I´m going to leave it at even. Ferrari was better than Renault, and yes, he had a Red Bull offer, but who would have guessed back then.
Ferrari to McLaren => not good at all.
McLaren to sports cars => Good, at least he didn´t have to deal with the crap McLaren was offering him, and he had an easy life with Toyota. He also had spare time to do Daytona with a top team. The Indy project didn´t work, but you can´t have everything.
Sports cars to Alpine => A mid field team, but not bad, at least he got back into the F1 market. I´m going to leave it at even.
Alpine to Aston Martin => Good, better car, better pay, what´s not to like.

So we have 4 goods for two bads and two evens. Not so bad, and a lot better than other drivers who have not that public image of being "jinxed", like Jackie Ickx, who always left the teams before they started winning.

 

I was just watching a 2011 Jacky Ickx interview on Youtube last night, and what he explained is that he tried to juggle his career between F1, sportscars and even other categories, like many drivers then. .
He even left Ferrari one year (69) for contractual reason to go to Brabham and win Le Mans with Ford, both were GULF sponsored.
Back at Ferrari in 70, he did both F1 and sports car for the Scuderia until end of 73.
When Ferrari stopped his sportscar program from 74, he left for Lotus in F1, and sportscars with Mirage, winning Le Mans again.
After 2 years at Lotus, he was offered a lucrative contract by Porsche for endurance races, where he excelled (4 more wins at Le Mans, endurance championship winner, etc ...) and became freelance in F1, accepting drives at Williams, Wolf, Ensign, and Ligier.
By then, endurance had become his priority, not F1. Later he won Bathurst and the Dakar rally too. Ickx never stopped winning !
So the comment that he left teams before they started winning doesn't really apply to him, IMO.

 

Well, at least it applied in F1. Had he stayed at Ferrari or Lotus a little longer and he would have been F1 champion. I'm pretty sure Ickx would trade one or two Le Mans wins for that.

 

Doesn't this make us wonder WTH Honda and Toyota couldn't get things done in the mid-2000's?

 

I am not sure, as a matter of fact. In this interview, Ickx seems to pride himself as having been a very eclectic driver compared to todays generation of F1 drivers. His career path was very different from what is the norm today. He started in enduro (motorcycle), then swiched to hillclimb and touring cars (never did karting), and was initially not interested by single seater, prefering driving sports cars. But he met Ken Tyrrell who made up his mind, and he did well in F2 alongside Jackie Stewart. Ferrari wanted to recruit Stewart, and when the talks broke down, took Jacky Ickx instead! Amazingly, being very young, Ickx didn't think it was a big deal driving for Ferrari, not knowing the history of the Scuderia ! When Ferrari dropped sportscars, Ickx left !
I followed motor racing already at that time, and F1 didn't have the glamour it has now. Many drivers did both anyway, by necessity. Sportscars were safer, faster, and closer to what the public expected from a racing car. Most F1 team were "garagists" with low budgets, whilst factories that paid better were in GTs and sportscars. My first "hero", Phil Hill, was more famous for having won Le Mans 3 times, plus numerous other endurance races than for being 1961 WDC !

 

The 2020 Aston finished 4th and would have been 3rd if not fined points for copying the Mercedes brake ducts. It was pretty effective, not an underperformer.


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The way I see it, is the 2019 Mercedes was extremely dominant. Winning 15 races, including 9 1-2 finishes. For a replica of that car to get just 4 podiums all season, and have a pretty unimpressive start to 2020, the time when that car should have been it's strongest relative to the competition. It took 8 races to get 1 podium. While yes you are correct that without that 15 point penalty, it would have finished 3rd in the WCC, they would still be about 100 points off the 2nd place Red Bull, who were 254 points off of Mercedes. By that account, I feel like they underperformed.

 

Thanks for this story,
One can safely said Ferrari first built his reputation with sportscar championship before Formula One.