Max Verstappen believes Fernando Alonso deserves many more race victories in Formula 1, explaining that a race win could be possible for the Spaniard in 2023.
When Alonso shocked the paddock with his Aston Martin move last season, few could have predicted he would have taken three podiums in his first three races with the team.
A perfect storm has given the Double World Champion another opportunity to fight at the front of F1 after many years of frustration in uncompetitive machinery.
Alonso was already demonstrating signs of brilliance at Alpine. His Qatar podium was the best result of his comeback with the French team, but qualifying 2nd in Canada and defending Hamilton at the 2021 Hungarian GP are other notable highlights.
In any case, Lawrence Stroll’s investment and the calm leadership of Mike Krack have helped propelled Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin AMR23 to regular podiums.
Only the Red Bull duo are ahead in the standings, cementing the phenomenal work done by Dan Fallows, Eric Blandin and the rest of the technical team at Silverstone.
Max Verstappen – much like the rest of the field – has taken notice of Aston’s resurgence, but the Dutchman maintains that Alonso has deserved better circumstances throughout his career:
“I think Fernando should have won, already, a lot more races than he has done. I think he deserves a lot more”, he told the media.
“So I would be quite happy to see him win number 33. But I also, in a way, would like to see him win more.
“We’ll see in the coming races.”
A race win seems realistic for Fernando Alonso this season, although this result will likely be dependent on issues for the Red Bull cars.
However, over the course of a 23-race season, it is feasible that enough variables could go his way and allow him to claim an elusive 33rd-race victory.
Despite knocking on the door of another F1 race win, Alonso has been relatively measured in his comments to the media – insisting that this is a season of learning for Aston Martin.
The objective at Silverstone is to maintain this level of performance in 2023, which will serve as a baseline for the team’s new concept.
It remains unclear how much further Aston can climb, but they have already wildly exceeded expectations and broken free of the midfield pack.
Looking ahead to the Baku GP, the pressure will remain on Alonso and his team to contend with Mercedes and Ferrari for podium positions and second place in the constructors.
