Fernando Alonso is certain a 33rd Formula 1 win "will happen" after a "nice surprise" at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard has claimed back-to-back podiums for the first time in 10 years at the opening two races of 2023, finishing third behind the two Red Bulls on both occasions.
And ahead of this weekend's race in Australia, Alonso explained how that second podium brought a sense of validation to his and Aston Martin's potential this season.
“At the moment, we are extremely happy with the performance of the car obviously," he said.
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"We were better than expected, especially in Jeddah – I think it was a nice surprise, so we arrive here with a good level of confidence."
Saudi also saw Alonso reach a milestone becoming just the sixth F1 driver in history to score 100 podiums.
“It feels good, it feels nice to reach that number," the two-time world champion commented.
"Obviously when you are in the championship you are not really concentrating on that, you are just thinking of the next weekend, as we did after Jeddah and here we are in Melbourne and hopefully we have a strong weekend again.”
But now expectations are growing that Alonso can end another 10-year wait for his first win since the 2013 Spanish GP.
EL PLAN 👀 @alo_oficial @AstonMartinF1 https://t.co/p1dxHvvARy
— F1 Miami Grand Prix (@f1miami) March 28, 2023
“We need some help from them [Red Bull],” he said via The Race, “but it will happen eventually when they cannot always finish first and second.
“One day it’ll be a [botched] pit stop, one day it’s a gearbox. Max had [a failure] Saturday – if he’d had it Sunday, he’d have had to retire the car.
“So there’s going to be some circuits where maybe reliability or whatever could help us and hopefully in those races we take the opportunity.”
Despite the hype, however, the 41-year-old warns there is no guarantee that Aston Martin will be a podium contender at every race.
“Not yet. I think we have to wait and see," he stated.
"Also I think very soon, from Baku or Imola, we will see the teams changing a few parts on the cars and maybe that changes also how competitive you feel, so let’s wait and see.”
