"A place in the top 3 seemed like a mission impossible": Fernando Alonso shares surprisingly modest expectations for the 2023 F1 season

Fernando Alonso had a tremendous 2023 F1 season, something he was not expecting when he first joined Aston Martin at the start of the year.

Several people in the F1 space were questioning his move to join the British team, mainly because Aston Martin ended up in seventh place in the 2022 constructors' standings, while his former team Alpine finished fourth.

However, Alonso's gamble was a surprising success as Aston Martin shot up the standings in 2023, to the point where it was even faster than the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari.

This was something even the Spaniard was not expecting. In an exclusive interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Alonso claimed that he was only expecting to score points in most of the races and only bag a podium if he got lucky in 2023.

"If I’m honest, I expected myself to be in the points in 80 percent of the races, in 50 to 60 percent in Q3 and, if I was lucky, maybe on the podium once. With two Reds Bull, two Mercedes and two Ferraris, a place in the top three seemed like a mission impossible to me," he said.

At the end of the 2023 F1 season, Alonso managed to stand on eight podiums, three of which were in second place. He scored 206 points and secured fourth in the drivers' championship table.

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Fernando Alonso feels the second year with Aston Martin will be easier

The move to Aston Martin brought good fortune to Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard is hungry for more and feels his second year with the team will be much smoother and more comfortable.

Reflecting on his brilliant debut in 2023 in a recent interview with astonmartinf1.com, he said:

"This being my second year with the team will help. I don't need to do many of the things I had to do at the start of this year. Everything will just be easier. We can focus more on performance and preparation for the first couple of races right from day one. We also have a very strong baseline to work with from 2023. When we arrive at a race, the work we do will be an optimisation of what we did this year."

As of now, Alonso is determined to stay with the Silverstone-based F1 team and try to bag even more podiums and even race wins.