Alonso hopes new wind tunnel and Adrian Newey will turn things around at Aston Martin
Ahead of the upcoming season, two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso is pinning hopes on the potential of Aston Martin's new wind tunnel, while he also expects Adrian Newey to turn things around at the Silverstone-based outfit.
Adrian Newey announced his departure from Red Bull on the 1st of May. Since then, he has been linked to multiple teams, including Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes as well.
Aston Martin finally put an end to the speculations in September, confirming that the British designer will begin working at the team's Silverstone HQ from 1 March 2025 taking up a new role as Managing Technical Partner.
Asked to comment on Aston Martin's up-and-down season in 2024, the Oviedo-born racer reckoned that the Silverstone-based team struggled to repeat the impressive performance from the previous season. However, the Spaniard is pinning hopes on the new wind tunnel and Newey's arrival.
"I don't think that the expectations were too high. We did a very strong campaign in 2023, and people were expecting us to fight for bigger things, or at least to be at the level that we were at the beginning of this year. And this is normal. This is Formula 1, and we want to be there as well.
"You know, we didn't succeed, you know, the second part of the year. We are aware of that. But we are not ashamed of that. You know, we are working towards fighting for the championship in the future and the second part of the year we didn't maybe bring to the circuit what we thought that it was in the pipeline.
"But at the same time, we have finished, as you said, some of the facilities in Silverstone, with building two and three of the factory, the wind tunnel will be soon operating. And we have Adrian Newey on board, so. It was not a bad 2024.
Pushed on to reveal how Aston Martin is progressing with its new car following the difficult campaign in 2024, Alonso said that the new machine will be a "completely new project."
"I don't know much. I don't know exactly what will be the characteristics of the car. As I said before, all the learnings that we are taking into this year's, you know, the struggles, I think are well in place into next year's project.
"So, you know, all the things that we didn't succeed this year, I think they are better for next year. I don't think that the car will be the base of 2023. I don't think so. I think it's just a completely new project for ‘25 which hopefully delivers better results than the current car. But we are aware of also the gap with the top four teams. They are in a little bit in another league.
"So, you know, I think there is a lot of work to do, but there's still [time] until the first race and first proper test. So I think we have plenty of time and we have the right people. We have the right facilities and we have the good learnings of this year. So, you know, I'm confident to start the season strong and to have a good 2025."
