Fernando Alonso believes his Aston Martin team should be looking to follow the example of McLaren and enjoy a swing in fortunes after a slow start to an F1 season.

Aston’s new AMR26 missed almost all of the Barcelona shakedown, only emerging late on Day 4 before 61 laps on Day 5, before further trouble hit during the first official pre-season test in Bahrain. 

There, the team completed only 203 laps, 67 fewer than closest team Mercedes, with Alonso only in the car on Day 2, completing 98 laps, to bring his tally to 159 in total across two of the three tests.

In contrast, Oscar Piastri, completed 153 laps alone on the final day in Bahrain as the two McLaren drivers each completed 207 laps, four more than Aston in total. 

With the Silverstone-based team expected to start the campaign on the backfoot, Alonso has pointed to the example of his former McLaren team from the 2023 season as evidence of what is possible.

That year, the MCL60 was born with a floor problem, with technical director James Key being removed from his position, as upgrades were put into development. 

These initially came at the Azerbaijan GP, and then a full package across the Austrian and British GPs, which transformed Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from backmarkers to podium and pole position contenders, and often the nearest challenger to the all-conquering Max Verstappen.

Although Alonso is wrong with his example below in that McLaren did not win a grand prix in 2023, with this coming at the 2024 Miami GP for Norris, Piastri did win the 2023 Qatar Sprint. 

“I don’t know who is in front now, and who is behind, but to be honest, the top teams will always have a little bit of an advantage, because they are running and their systems are smooth,” Alonso explained to media, including RacingNews365. 

“They are always at their full potential, and the small teams need to grow step-by-step, so I think the new regulations always offer the opportunity to have a surprise.

“I don’t know who is going to be the surprise, but I think some of the top teams, maybe one of them, will not be as fast as we think, and some of the midfield teams will be a little bit faster than we think.

“But I’m not sure who that is going to be, and the second-half of the season is hopefully going to be different.

“Especially in our case, even if we start slow, we can get better, and let’s see.

“McLaren in 2023 was lapped in the Bahrain [season-opener], and they won a race in Austria or at Silverstone.”