Formula 1

F1 Rumours: Fernando Alonso In Sights For Aston Martin Seat For 2023 Season

Fernando Alonso is rumoured to be in Aston Martin’s sights as they line him up to replace Sebastian Vettel next for next year. This is Alonso’s second season with Alpine with the driver currently sat 15th in the Driver Standings, and while this might not sound overly promising, bad luck has contributed to his measly 2 points.

The Spaniard retired from both Saudi Arabia and Imola, and a possible pole position at the Australian Grand Prix was ripped away from him when a hydraulic issue forced him off of the track during Q3.

Vettel, on the other hand, has twice as many points with Aston Martin as Alonso does with Alpine despite the team not being as up to pace as the latter. But despite this, with Vettel wanting more performance from his car, it’s rumoured that he’ll be leaving the team. F1-Insider.com believes that this could mean that Alonso is next inline for the throne at Aston Martin alongside Lance Stroll.

To add further fire to this rumour, Alonso is Lawrence Stroll’s “desired driver” if Vettel does ever leave the team.

This should of course be considered with a pinch of salt, but Vettel has previously expressed a slight interest in retiring after his subpar performance:

“I don’t know. No secrets, it will depend on how this year goes and then (I’ll) take it from there,” he said.

“My contract ends at the end of this season. Obviously it’s not the year everyone in the team had hoped for, at least not the start of the season, but I think it would be bad to write it off already.”

He continued:

“In all honesty, I had an amazing 15 years or so, looking back, and I was in a position to win championships, win a lot of races, fight for pole positions, get a lot of podiums and obviously the taste was great.

It’s not a secret that if you are not in a position to be there that it’s a different taste.”

“You need to find a different motivation, but I think ultimately I am willing to be tasting the same again. That’s the nature of the sport.

That’s one of the big deciders but the team is growing – there are a lot of things that look very promising.

“The answer is time will tell, but those will be the key things I will be looking at to see how promising it’s looking at the future and how soon.”

 

 

 

Aston Martin have ambitions to become title contenders within the next five years, but early in 2022, they find themselves as one of the slowest outfits on the grid, Vettel and team-mate Lance Stroll opening theirs and Aston Martin’s accounts at Imola with a P8 and P10 finish respectfully.

But, with Aston Martin looking far from a contender to challenge the top teams right now, it has led to renewed speculation that Vettel could leave the team.

And in such a situation, F1-Insider.com report that Alonso is on Aston Martin’s radar, having first been linked with a move to the team ahead of the 2022 campaign when Vettel’s future also was not clear.

The report adds that Alonso, who is yet to extend his Alpine contract beyond 2022, is team owner Lawrence’s Stroll ‘desired driver’ should the need arise to find a Vettel replacement.

In addition, the report states that CEO of the luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin Lagonda, Tobias Moers, has left following disagreements with the board and Stroll, with former Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa coming in as his replacement.

Vettel has stated that he is yet to decide his future at Aston Martin and in Formula 1 in general beyond 2022, though physically feels like he has many more years to give to racing.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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