Fernando Alonso completed his first test with Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso is leaving Alpine in 2023 and joining Aston Martin.

Aston Martin garage welcomed a new driver to the team to replace the departing Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso will be joining the side in 2023. The transfer is one of the most talked about in the 2023 silly season.

Anyways, the Spaniard got his first taste of driving for Aston Martin. All teams took part in the post-season Tyre testing in Abu Dabi. The one-day test was conducted for testing Tyres for the upcoming season on Tuesday.

Alonso was quick to get in his new car and take part in the test. Alonso had yet another disappointing race in Abu Dhabi retiring due to a mechanical issue.

The two-time world Champion drove 97 laps before jumping out of his AMR22.

Alonso optimistic about future with Aston Martin

After wrapping up his 97 laps, Alonso talked to the media about his experience driving the Aston Martin for the first time. Alonso responded:

“No, I’m much more optimistic now,” when asked by PlanetF1 whether he was as optimistic about Aston Martin’s chances in 2023 following the test, as opposed to before driving the car.

“When I signed for Aston Martin [in July], I was 90% happy. When they started improving and they finished the season on a high, I was 100%.

“This morning, I was 100%, now I’m 100+!”

Alonso was then asked if their were some problems with the car that needed fix:

“first the seat, because it’s a little painful on the left side,” he told media.

“Obviously, we did 97 laps compressed in one morning, so it was quite extreme.

“But we will have to sit down, I have to go through now in my mind, everything that I felt. There are small things, most of them are comfort –  not really the balance itself, or the behaviour of the car.

“The shift tones for the gears, for the pitlane, the dash messages when you do a change, how long a message pops up on the dash. These kinds of things, obviously, you are used to one setup, and now you try to accommodate things, to see in a more natural way. So these kinds of things are probably the priority right now.”

“It is very different” – Fernando

Fernando Alonso left Alpine which was also a midfield team but in a much better condition and pace than Aston Martin. Regardless, the 42-year-old was asked what differences he felt driving his new car:

“It is very different, because I think the philosophies are very different on how they design the car and how they run the car,” he explained.

“So it was nice to feel the differences a little bit and now try to understand what is the best way. Next year, the car is going to be nearly new on everything. So there is not much point really to develop this idea much or anything like that. It was more about controls and other things.

“I was happily surprised with everything but this year’s car is not anywhere near what we will run next year. It was not really any anything really to get confident or anything like that. It’s not like there’s going to be a continuation of this car or something like that.

“But they had a very strong weekend here, Sebastian [Vettel] qualifying in front of me. So I don’t think that it was much of a difference between Aston Martin and Alpine at the weekend. I felt basically the same as well, I felt a very competitive car. Both Aston Martins finished in the points, so it was a good car anyway.”

Fernando Alonso will partner with Lance Stroll in 2023.

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