Alonso makes the switch from Alpine to Aston Martin for F1 2023 as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement.
It will be Alonso’s third team in just four seasons having raced for McLaren in 2018, and then Alpine in 2021 and 2022 when returning from his sabbatical.
Speaking to the media ahead of Aston Martin’s 2023 F1 car launch, while he didn’t specifically name either Alpine or McLaren, Alonso believes there’s a clear difference in mentality between his former teams and his new one.
“Everyone [at Aston Martin] is hungry for success,” Alonso said. “Maybe they didn’t experience fighting for wins regularly or championships or podiums every weekend but they trust themselves, they have self confidence and they know they can achieve that but they never did yet.
“This is very different compared to other teams that I joined in the last few occasions. Maybe they had success in the past and they were just in a comfortable position. They were just fourth and they were happy with fourth.
“They were fifth, they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh there was a celebration. Here there are no celebrations until we win and this is very appealing.”
Alonso was happy to acknowledge his “demanding” personality, but he explained that it’s one that is aligned with Aston Martin and their owner, Lawrence Stroll.
“I am very demanding with everything that I do,” Alonso added. “I expect a lot from people that I work with. I give my 100 percent and I expect the same from the people I work with. Since the first day in Aston Martin, I felt exactly the same values from the people around me.
“Obviously, we have the leadership of Lawrence that I know for many years now. He had a lot of success in many different things and many different projects in his life and I see there’s no doubt F1 will not be different. He will succeed sooner or later. That’s something that is very motivating.
“The new people that joined the team – Dan Fallows, Eric, the best people in each of the competitors, Aston Martin went there and took them, convinced them. There is something, for sure, going on in this team that makes things special.
“As I said before, you need investment and you need the talent in F1. We have the investment, we have the facilities and we have the talent. It’s just a matter of time, unfortunately I am not 20 but I will do my best to help the team.”
