Fernando Alonso’s girlfriend has let a contract secret out of the bag.
Last August, the now 41-year-old Spaniard signed what he and the team called a “multi-year” deal starting in 2023.
It got off to a stellar start recently in Bahrain with an immediate podium shared by the dominant Red Bulls.
Red Bull team officials reacted by pointing to the visible similarities between the new Aston Martin and the title-winning Red Bull car of 2022.
“Aston Martin looks like a Red Bull because Aston Martin took half of Red Bull’s aerodynamic employees,” Franz Tost, boss of the Red Bull-owned team Alpha Tauri, is quoted by Diario Sport.
“So of course they built the same car and painted it green.”
And Tost said Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll, a Canadian fashion billionaire, paid handsomely for that green Red Bull.
“It’s a question of money,” Tost said, “because those people were surely not cheap.”
However, Dr Helmut Marko hit back at those who think Red Bull is accusing Aston Martin of cheating or espionage.
“No, not at all,” the top Red Bull official told formel1.de. “It’s not meant to be an accusation either.
“They are only humorous comments, because if you look at the grid, the Aston Martin is the car that is most similar to us.”
For his part, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack insisted he will not comment because he doesn’t want to get into a “war of words”.
And Ralf Schumacher thinks the Silverstone based team is still not ready to fight Red Bull for the title.
“They still have a lot to learn,” he said. “They’re only just getting used to racing against the top teams.
“It is a relatively young team and they will still make mistakes, but that does not prevent them from growing. There is certainly potential, but it is still too early for this year,” former F1 driver Schumacher added.
As for Alonso and his ‘multi-year’ contract, meanwhile, it appears at least that the actual duration of the deal is now out in the open.
Andrea Schlager, the Servus TV reporter who doubles as two-time champion Alonso’s current girlfriend, revealed: “Fernando now has a two-year contract and it will most likely be the last contract.”
(GMM)
