Dan Fallows agrees with Fernando Alonso about Aston Martin being ahead of schedule with their developments this season

Dan Fallows, the team's technical director, spoke about the AMR23 last weekend in Miami. Fallows feels the team's 2023 package is a solid all-around car with no significant flaws.

When Fernando Alonso decided to join an ambitious Formula 1 team, he set a high benchmark for Aston Martin to meet. Surprisingly, one of his loftiest goals appears to be within grasp. Aston Martin is ahead of plan by a year.

With four podiums in five races to begin 2023, Alonso has expressed optimism that, with a little help from Red Bull, race victories this year are conceivable. Alonso said:

"Yeah I think we targeted a big step, we were quite aggressive about pursuing that target and it has been gratifying to see that we have made a big step on last year."

He added:

"I think again if we look at ourselves and look at our relative pace to the fastest car which at the moment is the Red Bull, we still have a way to go. So yeah, absolutely delighted that we've made a step that we were hoping for, but we need to look to make the next one."

Despite enormous development over the winter and the strength of the AMR23 at all types of circuits to date, Aston Martin still have work to do. Red Bull seems to have launched a rocketship this year, and the Aston Martin team will need extra time to catch up with them.

Fallows worked for Red Bull for 16 years, and he understands that Red Bull is further advanced and more certain of their unique car design.

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Fernando Alonso and his viral moment in Miami

Fernando Alonso never fails to impress, both on and off the track. The Spanish Aston Martin driver is the oldest on the Formula 1 starting grid and the tales around him follow one another weekend after weekend

Aston Martin threw another party after Alonso's fourth podium in the first five rounds of the 2023 world championship. Fernando Alonso was one of the most wanted men in the corralito, where media interviews take place after each weekend event, after moving up to third in the drawer once more.

While Max Verstappen was giving his post-race interview in the media pen, you could see Fernando Alonso sniffing the white flowers that they had arranged. He had no idea that they were filming him. Footage of Alonso smelling the fake flowers spread across social media gathering hilarious reactions from his fans all over the world.