Alonso in unusual claim ahead of landmark 400th F1 race

Fernando Alonso has conceded that he is "probably overconfident of his abilities" as he is set to start his 400th grand prix inside the top 10. 

Alonso will line-up eight in Qatar as he becomes F1's first quadruple-centurion following a poor run of form for Aston Martin.

The two-time world champion has not scored points since eighth in Singapore, with the AMR24 machine suffering a drop in competitiveness over recent weeks. 

However, the car has looked strong at Lusail, as Alonso took 11th in the sprint, and then ended just two-tenths slower than Lewis Hamilton in grand prix qualifying as George Russell stuck the sister Mercedes on pole, once Max Verstappen had been penalised.

Following the slump in competitiveness, Alonso was buoyed by the turn of speed, but conceded that he was over-confident at times.

"Obviously, you need to feel competitive from time to time and I don't have doubts of myself, I'm probably overconfident of my abilities, but it is good to have a good result," Alonso told media including RacingNews365.

"I guess for the team as well, [it is important] that they can trust that when we are competitive, the car is responding well and when the car is not competitive and fighting for Q1 it is not that I became slow from day to night. 

"It is that the car is struggling, so our comments have to be trusted.

"I prefer to be strong on Sundays rather than Saturdays, but it does help for sure because the team is never stopping, even when we are starting from the back."

Aston's turn-around

2024 has been a poor season for Aston Martin, with just 86 points on the board and a best-finish of fifth in Saudi Arabia, in contrast to the eight podiums scored last season. 

However, Alonso praised the team for the turnaround it made with the car from recent poor weekends in Brazil and Las Vegas.

"There is a lot of studies, a lot of learning and lessons that we took [after the sprint], where we were more competitive than previous grands prix," he said.

"We were struggling with understeer in the high-speed and oversteer in the low-speed, so the car was not really together in terms of low to high-speed, but we made some changes and the car was mcuh better.

"It shows that if you constantly work on searching for performance, and if you are fighting for the podium or going out of Q1, the team is always motivated.

"It is not that we need the result to boost everyone, but it will always help to be competitive from time to time."