Alonso compares the resurgent Aston Martin to 2009 Brawn GP

Fernando Alonso has enthusiastically compared the staggering leap Aston Martin achieved over the winter to that special 2009 year, which saw the newly formed Brawn GP team win both championships with Jenson Button clinching his only title back then.

Alonso was full of praise for his “very talented” new team after a promising start to the 2023 campaign, which saw the 41-year old claim back-to-back podiums.

Aston Martin finished seventh in the constructors both in 2021 and 2022, but a major U-turn in fortune has seen the team leapfrog many competitors, including big names like Ferrari and Mercedes. Not only on results, but also on pure pace, the green cars are clearly the second fastest team at the moment, trailing only to the dominant Red Bull.

More on this topic:

Lawrence Stroll confirms talking to Newey ‘for years’

Alonso highlighted that his team improvement this year is even more spectacular than that of Brawn GP in 2009, given the stability in regulation between 2022 and 2023 (let’s not forget the technical changes between 2008 and 2009 were the most significant in F1 entire history).

“Ferrari when it was 2020, they were very bad, or 2021, then in the following year – last year – they were fighting for the championship, or won the first two or three Grands Prix of the year, so Ferrari made a huge step last year. There was also Brawn GP – huge,” said Alonso.

“With a non-regulation change, Aston Martin’s is probably the biggest one. All the others, they were with the regulation change, plus with the cost cap it’s very difficult to do something like that, but we have very talented people in the team – so far it’s been a good start and hopefully only the start.”