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Fernando Alonso's former teammate Romain Grosjean feels the 2024 Aston Martin has a striking resemblance to the 2023 Red Bull. Last season, the Silverstone-based squad made a massive jump in terms of performance. The team finished the 2022 F1 season languishing in seventh in the championship.
The 2023 F1 season saw Aston Martin transform into a potential podium contender. At the start of the season, the car was a perennial podium finisher in the hands of Fernando Alonso, who racked up as many as eight podiums in the season. The team finished the season fifth in the Constructors' Championship.
For the 2024 F1 season, Aston Martin will be looking to take a step forward once again. Looking at the launch spec, Grosjean felt that Alonso's 2024 challenger had a lot of resemblance to the 2023 Red Bull. On his YouTube channel, he said (via PlanetF1):
“I think Aston Martin last year took a 2022 Red Bull and used a lot of the philosophy that was made on the Red Bull in 2022. And I feel like the 2024 Aston Martin is an upgraded 2023 Red Bull. I mean, I don’t blame them. That was the fastest car last year. You can see the sidepods on the side, you can see the front wing, you can see the small tiny air entry on the sidepods, the rear wing."
"It should work well"- Fernando Alonso's teammate on the Aston Martin
Romain Grosjean also touched upon how Aston Martin has pushed its philosophy with this year's car, and since there is a lot of inspiration from what Red Bull did, he said that the car should 'work well'.
The Silverstone squad has a history of trying to achieve something similar in 2020 as well when the 'Racing Point' squad built a car that eerily resembled the Mercedes of the previous season.
In his final verdict of the car, Grosjean, who was teammates with Fernando Alonso in 2009 at Renualt, said, via the aforementioned source:
“They’ve pushed their philosophy and what they did last year to the next level. As I say, they’ve very much used what was the fastest car in the paddock and upgraded it, so on paper it should work well. It is an upgraded version of what they had last year, also with some inspiration from Red Bull, so why not do it, when Red Bull has been dominating so far."
He added:
“One thing that we noticed this year in the trend is the rear bodywork shape. It’s not the nicest in the world, but seems that pretty much every team has been running that shape at the back.”
It will be interesting to see what Alonso, 42, can do in his Aston Martin this season, especially with his contract coming to an end in 2024.
