Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso is targeting victory on Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix, to finally end his winless streak.
Alonso has astonishingly not claimed a win since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, whilst he was still racing for Ferrari.
The Spaniard has been impeccable since making the switch from Alpine to Aston Martin this season, with the 41-year-old having finished on the podium five times already this year.
So far in 2023, he hasn’t gone two consecutive races without a rostrum, something which would happen for the first-time on Sunday if he fails to finish amongst the top three.
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He’s certainly starting from an excellent position to fight for the podium places, after securing a front row start.
Just like at the Monaco Grand Prix, Alonso will start from second alongside Max Verstappen, who claimed a third consecutive pole position.
Alonso had actually qualified third behind Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg; however, the German received a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flag conditions.
When asked what position he’s aiming for on Sunday, Alonso unsurprisingly replied by saying that he was aiming for “first”.
Prior to Hulkenberg’s penalty being announced, Alonso revealed his exact game plan for Sunday and how he hopes to “force an error” out of Verstappen.
“So, the plan is to overtake Nico in one part of the race, hopefully in the first part of the race, because Haas, maybe the pace will will be struggling compared to our car that normally is good on Sundays, and then put some pressure on Max,” Alonso told Sky Sports F1.
“I think he has been winning by 20 or 30 seconds every every race, so hopefully a little bit closer than that, force an error, or maybe a bad pit stop or something. You know, Red Bull cannot do things always perfect, so maybe tomorrow is the day.”
Saying how he plans to beat Verstappen and actually doing it are two very different things, with Alonso admitting that Red Bull and the Dutchman haven’t got a single weakness currently.
Alonso is in awe of how the Austrians are working and how as things stand, the Milton Keynes-based team are “the best on basically everything”.
With Red Bull and Verstappen being so strong, Alonso has embraced the “beautiful challenge” of fighting the 25-year-old, something he’s set to do once again on Sunday.
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“We didn’t see any at the moment,” Alonso admitted.
“This is outstanding what they are doing, so we just need to get better to learn from them because they are the best on basically everything – the pitstops, the starts, tyre warmup, degradation, they have no weaknesses.
“Driving, Max [has been] outstanding all season, he’s a tough competitor but it’s a beautiful challenge.”