Well, I don’t know that any of us saw that coming! If you watched the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix then you witnessed one of the truly great, virtuoso driving performances. No, not the race winner’s, I’m referring to the elder statesman of Formula One, Fernando Alonso.
First off, in what alternate, multi-verse would you expect to see an Aston Martin finish on the podium of a Grand Prix? Not even the Marvel Cinematic Universe could have dreamed up something that seemingly outlandish. This notion is all the more absurd if you’re at all familiar with Aston’s history in Formula One. Aston first entered Formula One in 1959, the year that all the front-running teams were moving over to rear-engine racecars. Of course, Aston entered the front-engined DBR4 and was properly shellacked. Never one to give up on a bad idea, the boys from Newport Pagnell, then came back for another beating in 1960 with a rear-engined…. no, I’m just kidding!… of course, they came back with another front-engined car, the DBR5! Anyway, you get the picture, Formula One was not really Aston’s cup of tea.
