Aston Martin stole the headlines when the 2023 season began by leaping up the pecking order to emerge as Red Bull’s nearest challengers over the first handful of races. But after racking up podiums with new signing Fernando Alonso, the Silverstone team slipped back amid struggles to maximise their car developments and rivals making effective steps of their own. At the end of it all, we look back at the highs, lows and everything in between.

Best finish

Fernando Alonso – 2nd in Monaco, Canada and the Netherlands

Alonso must have felt like he’d hit the jackpot after leaving Alpine and getting his hands on the Aston Martin during pre-season testing, with the much-improved AMR23 – overseen by former Red Bull technical chief Dan Fallows – marking a huge step forward.

The definition of hitting the ground running in his new environment, Alonso impressively finished on the podium in six of the opening eight races, including P2 results in Monaco – where he arguably could have won with a better strategic approach to late rainfall – and Canada.

However, only two more trophies followed over the second half of the season (another P2 coming at a rain-hit Zandvoort) as Aston Martin’s development plan failed to live up to expectations – some aerodynamic inefficiencies crept in and Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren got their seasons on track.