Alonso warns 'no magic bullet' after Aston Martin slump

Fernando Alonso has warned there will not be a "magic bullet" to help Aston Martin advance up the grid after a disappointing end to his first season with the team.

The Silverstone-based outfit took a step forward in F1's Constructors' standings from its 2022 efforts by virtue of its early-campaign form that saw Alonso secure six podiums in the opening eight races.

But having once been Max Verstappen and Red Bull's nearest challenger at the front of the grid, Aston Martin ultimately slipped to fifth in the standings, slipping behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren in the development race.

Part of the AMR23's late-season struggles came from a narrow set-up window and asked whether this was prominent at the start of the year or whether upgrades brought about the issues, Alonso told media including RacingNews365.com: "I think a consequence a little bit of the development of the car.

"But it is the same for everybody. When you try to extract that extra performance from the car, you need to sacrifice some areas to gain in some others, so you start narrowing the window.

"I think we have some ideas [for the new season] and everything should be better."

'We need to keep an eye'

Aston Martin will hope to reverse the backwards step that was taken with the developments throughout last season with a refreshed effort when racing gets underway in Bahrain on March 2.

Providing optimism this will be achieved, Alonso explained: "There are clear indications of some parts of the car that were underperforming for a few events.

"There were also different philosophies in the pit lane but also, for us, in the way you tried to extract the performance of these cars.

"Now, with all the experiments and all the knowledge of this year, we think we understand the direction to develop the car better, but these things are moving constantly.

"I don't think there is a magic bullet to develop the car, otherwise, it would be very easy for everyone.

"But things you maybe trust now, in six months time - because the trend in the pit lane is to move the airflow in a different way - it feels it gets outdated very quickly, so we need to keep an eye."