Fernando Alonso praises Aston Martin’s future prospects following Bahrain podium

Alonso finished behind Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and race-winner Max Verstappen, successfully overtaking Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr in a bold move. He capitalized on Charles Leclerc's retirement to secure his podium finish.

Although most of Aston Martin's car was redesigned over the winter, Alonso is pushing for continuous improvements. Both driver and team are aiming to become a title-contending force as soon as possible. Alonso said, "there are a couple of areas that we have to improve, that I will not share, but I think the most important point is that the new Aston Martin is a new car, a new project - this is just the beginning."

He added, "This is not the final car; this is just the starting car of this concept that we changed over the winter. I think some of the top teams just kept the philosophy that they had last year; Red Bull or Ferrari, they kept more or less the same shape, just fine-tuned a few things and [perfected] that good baseline that they had."

However, Alonso acknowledged that the AMR23 appears to be more potent in race-trim as things stand. He pondered how much he could have reduced the almost 40-second gap to race winner Max Verstappen had it not been for a first-lap clash with teammate Lance Stroll and his various battles.

"I think on the tyres, it seems it is one strength of our car, some legacy from last year because Aston Martin was very strong on Sundays last year as well," Alonso commented. "Let's try to keep that on the car and just improve the Saturdays, which was maybe the weak point of last year for the team and [in qualifying here] we were not mega-competitive, so let's work on that."

Alonso expressed his full trust in the team's capabilities, and stated, "For us, it was much more difficult, we had to change 95% of the car, so I guess there is more to learn from the car and there is more to come on our side. [I have] full trust in our team, obviously - they know what they do, so let's hopefully improve soon."

Aston Martin sit second to Red Bull in the constructors' standings after the opening round of racing, with Alonso's podium result backed up by Stroll's determined drive to P6 while nursing wrist and foot injuries sustained in a recent training crash.

The Spanish driver's confidence in Aston Martin's development plan is a testament to the team's efforts in redesigning the car over the winter. With Alonso's experience and skills, the team is likely to improve and become more competitive as the season progresses.