'The team is making progress'- Fernando Alonso backs Aston Martin to get a podium finish in ongoing F1 season

Amid all the speculations around his future in F1, Fernando Alonso has decided to continue his stint with the Aston Martin. With a new deal Alonso, who is mulling over retirement, will participate in his 22nd and 23rd F1 season with Aston Martin.

After signing Alonso, the Silverstone-based franchise is set to fight for the championship in the next few seasons. The team has invested a lot of money to build a massive factory in the team base to start developing new cars. It is also looking to lure some exciting drivers from other teams including Adrian Newey from Red Bull.

Meanwhile, Alonso continues to be firm and focused on the team’s mission. While speaking with media Alonso said, "Obviously, I wanted to see how we would perform. There was no guarantee that I would feel good and if I saw with Aston Martin that things were not going right, we had a car that was difficult to drive, we were not competitive and I saw no progress in the team and negative sides, maybe I would look elsewhere.”

“We are very close to top teams”, says Fernando Alonso 

Further speaking about Aston Martin’s decent performance in the ongoing season Fernando Alonso said that his team is close to the top four teams. He said, "But to be honest, although we didn't start [2024] in the podium positions, we are very close to the top four teams, apart from Red Bull.”

"There are going to be some races where we are more competitive, some races less, but in the first four races, we introduced new parts of the car - at every race we had an upgrade. This is quite encouraging and nice to see, the team is making progress, it is never quick enough in F1, it is a very demanding sport and environment.”

“But 18 months ago, we had a very small building - the old Jordan factory, and now we are half-a-tenth up and down with Ferrari, Mercedes and the top teams. So the ambition of this project is just something else”, he further added.

Notably, this year's drivers market has been something different. With just four Grand Prix in season and 20 to go, there is a lot of buzz in the drivers market. With Lewis Hamilton and Alonso declaring their signings others are yet to finalize one.