Formula 1: The element fueling Aston Martin’s newfound success
With Aston Martin being this season’s surprise in Formula 1, their success goes well beyond simply building a competitive car.
Four races into the 2023 Formula 1 season, we are starting to get a clearer vision of what Aston Martin are all about. It started off with copycat accusations from Red Bull, but people are now viewing the Silverstone-based team with a different eye.
With Fernando Alonso joining the team, there were skeptics regarding how he and Lance Stroll would be as teammates, given their history with other teammates in prior seasons.
However, the duo have defied expectations with a level of teamwork and camaraderie that no one could have seen coming, and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix truly showed why this team is where they are.
From the moment the cars hit the track, everyone is aware of who their battles are with and what they must do to win them.
It is blatantly clear that Aston Martin are up against Mercedes, and the radio messages between the drivers and race engineers illustrate their mindset.
Alonso has been a great teammate to Stroll, and the two have been working well together this season. Alonso has great admiration for the Canadian and really sees the talent in him.
In Baku, the duo were helping each other throughout the race. Early on, Stroll was on the tail of Alonso, and he had the team let the Spaniard know that he would not attack him.
Later on in the race, Alonso was openly giving suggestions to Stroll regarding the brake balance.
"“Tell Lance my brake balance suggestion, as I am now. I think it might help.”"
Fans were actually quite surprised by this because it is somewhat rare to see such teamwork between teammates in Formula 1.
More commonly, we are used to seeing teammates battle it out on the track. Oftentimes, drivers tend to be selfish and unnecessarily battle it out with their teammates and end up compromising the race for themselves and the team.
It has happened on numerous occasions, so when teammates help each other out in this manner, it is quite surprising to see.
Next. All-time F1 wins list. dark
Having a greater goal in mind and having everyone coming together to achieve it is a big reason why Aston Martin are seeing such success this season. With Alonso and Stroll being such a great duo, they are reaping the benefits by accruing points. They scored 22 points in Baku to widen their lead over Mercedes for second place in the standings.