Fernando Alonso has cited the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix as his best race since making his F1 comeback, with the Spaniard acknowledging that this marked the most preparation he had put into one race throughout his entire career.
Having returned to the sport with Alpine in 2021 following a two-year hiatus – before making the switch to Aston Martin in 2023 – Alonso has scored nine podiums, with three of these seeing him finish in second place during a strong start to his first campaign with the British squad.
An achievement that has eluded Alonso, however, is that of a win, something that the two-time world champion last earned back in 2013. Yet during Formula 1’s visit to Monaco in 2023, Alonso looked like he could potentially be on course to take a 33rd career victory.
When asked during an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast – brought to you by Salesforce, a Global Partner of Formula 1 – to name his greatest race since returning to the sport, Alonso explained: “I would say Monaco 2023, because I think we started the season in ‘23 and we saw our car strengths were the slow-speed corners, traction, braking.
“Since Bahrain or Jeddah, I said to the team, ‘Don’t touch the car too much until Monaco. Whatever upgrades are coming, let’s try to wait for after Monaco. I don’t want to change the characteristics and the DNA of this car until we race in Monaco.’
