Aston Martin watched their tenuous claim to a spot in the top four finally slip into McLaren’s grasp a few weeks ago. And there’s no doubt that McLaren’s pace is remarkable – perhaps second only to Red Bull since the summer.
But Aston Martin finished this season reminding onlookers of how the year began in Bahrain. That’s especially true of Fernando Alonso, whose stellar defense on Hamilton in the final stint recalled their back-and-forth fight for the podium in the season opener. Lance Stroll finished in the points, too, completing a solid last run of races after a horrid October. Both drivers finished in the top 10 in the drivers’ championship, and Alonso finished in the top five for the first time since 2013. After months of losing ground to McLaren and its rivals, this finale was a dose of positivity for Aston Martin.
“I said yesterday – 12 months ago, this was unthinkable,” Alonso said. “So this is the best season ever for the team, as well, with whatever name they had before. So, this is an incredible year to remember. Expectations were low. So, we exceeded the expectations this year. Maybe next year is the opposite. The expectations will be very high. So we have some pressure on the shoulders.”
So will the Papayas, even though Norris and Oscar Piastri didn’t have the pace to match Leclerc or Mercedes this weekend. Norris’s mistake in qualifying offered a good reminder that, for all the incredible development gains out of Woking this year, consistency remains an elusive quality. Improving on that will be imperative as the gap between the top five teams closes further over the winter break.
“For us to catch Mercedes, for us to catch Ferrari in terms of pace ... we've been behind them for two years,” Norris said. “They've not really taken any steps forward, and we've taken a massive step forward. Plenty more things that we know we can improve on. So I think it's a good time for us – a few more bits of the puzzle to put together, but we found the key pieces, and yeah, I think we know what direction to go in.”
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