“It hurt a lot”: Fernando Alonso rues one negative for Aston Martin during pre-season testing

Fernando Alonso has admitted that Lance Stroll's absence from the 2023 F1 pre-season testing hurt his new team, Aston Martin.

Stroll was injured in a bicycling accident mere days before all teams tested out their 2023 machinery in Sakhir. The reigning F2 world champion jumped into the AMR 23 to fill in for the Canadian.

Aston Martin managed to get a total of 387 laps in during the three days of testing and Fernando Alonso registered the team's best time of 1:31.440.

However, he felt Stroll not being in Sakhir to get familiar with the car was detrimental to their collective cause as he has more history in the team and could compare this year's car to its predecessor.

When asked about his teammate not being able to attend pre-season testing by F1 TV, the two-time world champion said:

"It hurt a lot. I think we miss him because some of my comments, my feelings with the car, we never know if it’s just me in a new team and a new car. It's just maybe an Aston Martin thing [that I am not used to] and Lance could spot it, brake pedal feeling, power steering, all these things."

Fernando Alonso went on to add:

I don't know if this is a legacy from the team or if it is just new [for] this car. We cannot do it without him, [so] I hope he can come [back] very soon."

---

"There is a lot more to come" - Fernando Alonso optimistic about Aston Martin's chances heading into 2023 F1 season opener

Fernando Alonso believes there is a lot more to come from Aston Martin's AMR 23 after a fruitful pre-season testing session in Bahrain.

The 41-year-old helped team Silverstone establish themselves as the 'best of the rest' behind frontrunners Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes during the shortened testing period.

Alonso even came close to topping the timing charts on Day 1, before being narrowly pipped by defending world champion Max Verstappen.

When asked to rate his team's chances during the aforementioned interview, the Spaniard said:

"We feel there is a lot more to come from the car, that we didn't have time yet [to find] in testing. The car felt good on all three days, we've been experimenting a little bit with very different routes on [car] set-ups, and we always found positives on these new routes."

He went on to add:

So there is a clear indication that we need to change philosophy in many things on this car compared to last year's car. That, obviously, is a concern in a way because we will need a couple of races to optimise the package."

Lance Stroll is still doubtful to be fit to race in time for the season opener. Aston Martin has confirmed that Felipe Drugovich is in line to replace him as the team's reserve driver if required.