Exclusive: Alonso continues to amaze De la Rosa: 'He is at Aston Martin to win titles'

When Fernando Alonso made the jump from Alpine to a strugglingAston Martin, it not only blew the driver market open but alsothrew up questions. Did he know something we did not? It turns outthat it would be the move of the season. Alonso joined Lando Norriswith the most podiums scored by a non-Red Bull driver at seven thisyear, while Aston Martin finished fifth in the Constructors'Championship - and improvement on seventh in 2022. At the same timethat Alonso went to the green team, so did fellow compatriot Pedrode la Rosa. He was appointed ambassador in November 2022, becominginvolved in the team's Driver Development Program . The 52-year-oldDe la Rosa still drove against Alonso during his F1 days andpraises his compatriot's continued professionalism, in an exclusiveinterview with RacingNews365 . "It's great that Fernando is drivingfor our team," says the good-humored De la Rosa. "He is a demandingdriver and I think he pushes every department. That can be aboutthe technical side, but also about marketing or PR. "He is alwaysextremely professional and when he focuses on something, hedelivers 100 percent. If Fernando tells you he can be somewhere by7:30 the next morning, he'll be there. Then it doesn't matter ifthere is something going on with the weather or the traffic - he isthere." "I only see Fernando's arrival in a positive light." Alonsohas been known for being a demanding customer in F1; it's what hasmade him the driver that is consistently always there in a titlefight during the latter years of the V10 and V8 era. De La Rosebelieves this has enabled Aston Martin to reach new heights, asthey look to cement themselves as future title contenders. "I thinkthat also helped all of us to raise our game. I can only seepositives from Fernando's arrival. The very first moment he arrivedto the team and you can tell he came here to work hard. This is thesense we got from him, is that he's not here on a retirement phase,it's not like that. He's here to win championships and that gave usa very strong energy inside the team." Although De La Rosa is fromBarcelona and not Alonso's native Oviedo, in Spain, the pair have along time friendship that stretches back to before they shared thetrack in F1. "I've known Fernando for a long time. When he wasactive in karts there was already a lot of talk about him; he wasgoing to be the next world champion and everyone was right aboutthat," says De la Rosa. "We ended up racing each other in Formula1, after which we also started working together. Now here we are,although I am functioning from a different role. I'm not involvedin the development, the technical side and the testing.Nevertheless, I like how he has developed himself and matured." DeLa Rosa has not been in the car since the 2012 season with the backrunners Hispania, but his new role in Aston Martin keeps himoccupied. "Working with Fernando, I'm still learning at my age.That keeps me alive. People sometimes wonder why I returned to F1and if I like my new role. I respond by saying that I enjoy everysecond because I'm still learning," he explains. "You learn in F1when you work with special people and at Aston Martin we have a lotof them. It's not just about Fernando, don't get me wrong. Thereare a lot of incredible people working there, who I also know frommy time. For example, I worked with Andy Stevenson (Aston Martin'sSporting Director) back in 1998." The text continues below theimage. De la Rosa saw Aston Martin's potential Aston Martin werethe big surprise at the start of the year, after they managed toturn around their poor fortunes at the end of the 2022 season andproduce a car worthy of podium finishes. Much of F1's aero testingrules enabled that rise to sudden success for a midfield team, buteven this rapid improvement surprised De La Rosa. "Honestly, I wasin the right place at the right time. It's also fair to say Iwouldn't have joined if I didn't see potential, but still I hadsome luck. I did know where I was going. When I arrived, the teamwas already confident after the development we went through in2022," says De La Rosa. "For the public, the 2023 start may havebeen a surprise, but the team understood the car quite well andmade a lot of strides a year earlier. During the winter break itwas just a matter of continuing the momentum of that development."With the team's seventh place finish at the end of last season, itenabled them to have 100% of testing time in the wind tunnel andcomputational fluid dynamics compared to 70% for championshipwinners Red Bull. But De La Rosa believes it was a combination offactors that played into Aston Martin's strengths, rather than onespecific area of improvement. "It's small details. Of courseaerodynamics play a big role, but I think it is unfair to say thatit was only an aerodynamic upgrade. The whole chassis, thesuspension, the power steering, all the details were different.Overall, it was a nice step up from the previous car. However, younever take a big step in one area of expertise, you have to focuson all the parts." De La Rosa is also quick to point to the workdone by Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll in the previous season:"I think the feedback from Lance and Sebastian was important and itwas continued with the arrival of Fernando. "But still I thinkLance played a very important role because he was the only driverwho stayed with the team. He contributed during the winter periodand was the consistent link in the process. That also paid off inthe simulator."