Fernando Alonso fires warning at Lewis Hamilton and shares Hungarian GP theory

21 July 2023 , 05:00

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Fernando Alonso is happy to be racing at a track which should suit his Aston Martin car (Image: Getty Images)

Fernando Alonso expects to be right back in the fight for the podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard has been one of the stand-out performers of the Formula 1 season so far, with six podiums from 10 races with his new Aston Martin team. And the Hungaroring holds great memories as the site of his first-ever F1 win, 20 years ago.

Alonso is sitting pretty third in the championship standings. However, his team has been a little inconsistent in recent races, allowing his old rival Lewis Hamilton to close the gap.

The Mercedes racer finished on the podium at Silverstone last time out, while Alonso had to settle for seventh place. But he is expecting this track to be much better suited to his AMR23.

And the 41-year-old will hope to use that to extend the gap between himself and Hamilton, which has closed to just 16 points. He told reporters: "We do have some hopes into this weekend after some struggles in Austria and Silverstone, so hopefully a better one."

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Asked why he is more confident at this venue, Alonso explained: "I think because the layout of the track and the characteristics are a little bit more similar to the circuits that we did perform well at so far this year. And I think high-speed corners, long straights are not maybe the strength of our package.

"I think Austria and Silverstone were a clear example of those. So yeah, hopefully here, we can come back to a stronger performance, even though our main competitors improved their packages and they will be very strong as well here. So it's going to be difficult, but hopefully good fun."

Fernando Alonso won this race 20 years ago, racing for Renault (Getty Images)

Regardless of how this weekend goes for Alonso, this track to the north west of Budapest will always have a special place in his heart. It was at the Hungaroring that he claimed the first of his 32 Grand Prix victories, as a fresh-faced 22-year-old driving for Renault in 2003.

And it is clear that he still remembers that race weekend in great detail, despite all the experience he has built up since. Alonso added: "It was obviously a magical moment of my life and my career as well. It changed a little bit everything after that.

"It was a qualifying that we had to put the fuel for the race, for the first stint. So we thought on Saturday night that we were very light on fuel and maybe, you know, the race would unfold differently. And maybe top five was possible or a podium, I think, was the realistic target. We ended up winning the race and it was a little bit of a surprise!"

Daniel Moxon