Fernando Alonso isn’t fazed by comparisons between the design of his Aston Martin car and last year’s Red Bull.
The two-time world champion and his team have been the revelation of the 2023 Formula 1 season so far, claiming podium finishes at the opening two races.
After Alonso’s brilliant drive to third in Bahrain, Red Bull was quick to throw shade at Aston Martin as Sergio Perez quipped there were “three Red Bulls” on the podium, while team boss Christian Horner declared “imitation is the biggest form of flattery”.
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But the Spaniard isn’t bothered.
“I don’t care about the comments at all,” he told Marca. “I’m not fazed except to focus on my team and improve.”
At the same time, however, Alonso rubbished the comparisons, adding: “You can clearly see that there are differences between the two cars at a glance.
“Visually they are different and an example of this is that Mercedes says that 50 percent of their car is ours [engine, gearbox and suspension] and there can be no two more different concepts than those two [Red Bull and Mercedes].
“That clearly indicates that neither of the two theories is true.
“We have a different concept than those two cars although it is true that visually all the cars look a bit alike. If you take the black cars, well, the Ferrari, the Haas and the Alfa Romeo also look very similar to each other.”
Alonso does see one rival that the Aston bears a resemblance to though…
“I would say that the car most similar to ours, to tell you the truth, is the Alpine, with the sidepods with those tunnels,” he concluded.
