Fernando Alonso to benefit from Red Bull's loss and "take the fight" to..

A former Red Bull employee has backed Fernando Alonso to take the fight to the Formula 1 champions this season – with the help of one of their old secret weapons.

As the season went on, though, the Silverstone-based team lost the development battle against their main rivals. And their pace on track suffered as a result, limiting the Spaniard’s opportunities to fight at the sharp end of the grid.

The original concept of that car worked ever so well but what didn’t work well for them was then the mid-season development battle, particular when we saw McLaren and Mercedes break through their upgrades through to June and July.

“Aston Martin’s year in 2023 was not only marked by their difficulties in the development side of things but that two of their competitors made great strides. There was an important change in the tyre construction which was brought in July and Fernando Alonso did comment that it had an effect on them more than others.

I’m a great believer that the four black rubber things that connect the car has such an impact of performance these days so even an incremental change can have a profound effect. I think Aston Martin may have suffered from that.”