Alonso "pleasantly surprised" during first test with Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso says he is pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Aston Martin car. On Tuesday, Alonso drove his new team's car for the first time and told The Race he discussed what he has been able to learn so far.

Alonso has made no secret recently that he is eager to start at Aston Martin. After crashing out in the last race for the sixth time this season with engine problems, the Spaniard could not wait to leave Alpine. The test day at the Abu Dhabi circuit on Tuesday gave Alonso an immediate opportunity to get to know his new team, as he was allowed to take a seat in the Aston Martin during the morning session.

'The reliability is great'

Having driven 97 laps with the car - almost twice as many as Sunday's race counted - Alonso is very excited about the prospect of next season. " I was pleasantly surprised ," Alonso says. "I feel okay with the car, we don't really need to adjust that much. I was a bit worried when they told me how many kilometres this engine already has on it but we did 97 laps without any problems. The reliability is great."

Alonso was first on the track this morning just to be as quick as possible. The two-time world champion was collecting as much data as possible during his first test with the Aston Martin. " It is very useful because we can immediately compare it with the race two days ago," Alonso explained. "The same track, the same conditions. It's nice because you immediately notice all the little details. Of course, the car will be largely different next year."