Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has predicted the Formula 1 grid could be so compact in 2024 that two-tenths could “change your life” between grand prix weekends.
Red Bull dominated the previous season en route to winning all but one race, but the battle behind the reigning champions proved to be a battle that fluctuated across the year.
Along with Ferrari and Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren sustained resurgences that saw five teams score at least seven podiums for the first time this millennium.
Although Red Bull’s dominance continued into the closing races, the final qualifying session in Abu Dhabi witnessed the top 18 cars be covered by just six-tenths in Q1.
Alonso anticipates that the field will continue to converge from the outset, which will make the development race take on even more significance in the upcoming campaign.
“I think my only concern – but it’s not a concern… my only fact that I know is that it’s going to be very tight,” Alonso told selected media including Motorsport Week.
“So even if we make a reasonable and very good step forward. We know that the other teams, over the winter, they do also a good step forward. And we saw in Abu Dhabi, I think within six-tenths, it was pole position and P18.
“So, you know, when you improve a couple of tenths, this can change your life and this can change fighting for a podium or being in Q2 out of the top 10 in the first races.
“And it’s just one small update that maybe you bring to the next race, and from Q2 you jump to a podium.
“So I think it’s going to be a very interesting season and a very demanding season off-track trying to bring upgrades to make a difference.”
Lance Stroll is also expecting the pack to close up with the current ground effect rules unchanged, leaving the Canadian hoping multiple teams can battle it out for wins.
“I think it’s gonna get tighter and tighter,” he added. You know, as everyone gets, you know, more knowledgeable about these regulations, I think, naturally, the field is gonna get tighter and tighter.
“So I hope, for the sport, for the fans, for us drivers that you get to see multiple different teams contending for race wins, that would be very exciting
While Aston Martin began the previous campaign as Red Bull’s closest challenger, the team failed to sustain that momentum with a sequence of problematic upgrades.
The Silverstone-based squad has assembled an evolution of its AMR23 car that will aim to provide the basis to address the development shortfalls endured last term.
When asked if he was optimistic Aston Martin would avoid a repeat of its plight, Alonso replied: “I’m confident. If not, I could not maybe sleep for the last two months!
“But I think we did a lot of experiments and a lot of changes back and forward in terms of understanding the problems and the direction and the path that we need to follow this year on the car. I think we understood a lot of things, as I said, this year’s car, we intend to improve some of those weaknesses that we saw in terms of developing the car last year that we maybe got into the wrong direction a few times, and we understood a little bit too late.
“But yeah, hopefully we have that knowledge, those difficulties from last year were lessons that we took on board for the ’24 car and we will see the result.
“I think we had a good step forward this winter. Maybe not as big as last year, because last year the baseline was very poor, and this year, the baseline was very strong already from last year, which is understandable.”
