The intriguing possibility of Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso battling Max Verstappen for race victories after the summer break has been raised after the team disclosed that they still have the resources available to continue developing their AMR23.
With some impressive early-year performances, Aston Martin established themselves as one of the primary contenders to Red Bull’s dominance, but they have consequently faded as Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren have all made gains.
This has sparked speculation that Mercedes may have the car that is sufficient enough to place second in the season’s constructor’s championship and possibly overcome Red Bull’s dominance by beating Verstappen and Perez in a few races before the season is over.
Aston Martin, however, believes that a historic race win is still possible for them in 2023 and is willing to invest resources in trying to achieve that, while Mercedes and a number of other teams have now turned their attention to their 2024 car.
“We’ve been targeting quite strong development throughout the year and we have the budget to keep developing the car,” Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough told Motorsport.com.
“That’s our aim, so we are bringing some steps all the way to the end of the championship really – as much as we can do.”
The idea that Aston Martin could perform more closely to Red Bull than they have the entire season will of course get F1 fans extremely excited over the remaining weeks of the season.
That would imply that Alonso and Verstappen might square off at some time this year, and the 42-year-old would probably offer the desperately needed challenge to Red Bull’s dominance.
“At a certain point, you have to fully focus on 2024,” McCullough added. “But we’re in the phase now where we’re able to work on both cars.”
