Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has downplayed talk from McLaren’s Lando Norris suggesting that some midfield Formula 1 teams could challenge for race wins.
Last season, four teams took victories, with McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes as a quartet finishing well clear of the rest in the Constructors’ Championship.
However, convergence under the current regulations, which enter their final year in 2025, has been profound, and this was proven during the Abu Dhabi season finale when eight-tenths covered the 20 cars in the first stint of qualifying.
With that in mind, Norris claimed ahead of the F1 75 launch event that “you’re probably going to have some winners that aren’t McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, or Red Bull”.
That notion was put to Alonso during F1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit last week, but he claimed it would be “difficult” for Aston Martin or any of its midfield challengers to fight for a victory.
“Now that [Norris] has the winning car, he says that,” Alonso told select media including Motorsport Week.
“When he was in the fifth or sixth team, he was saying that only one team will win all the races.
“So, this is a normal, confident speech, you know. So, it’s good for him, but I think it’s going to be difficult.
“Reliability is so good these days, there are not many retirements, there are not many incidents, strategies are quite defined.
“Even on Thursday before coming to the Grand Prix, you know exactly it’s going to be one stop, two stops, which tyre you will use.
“So, everything is so perfect now that it’s difficult to change or to make a race unpredictable.
“It has to be crazy weather or something like that.
“You know, hopefully there are multiple winners and it’s going to be a tight championship.
“Last year it was already a very good one and hopefully this year it’s even better.”
