Alonso appetite whetted after first taste of Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso will head into the first season next year with his latest team with confidence soaring following a successful F1 test outing.

Alonso completed 97 laps of the Yas Island circuit on his Aston Martin debut, and the two-time F1 champion could not have been happier with the experience, apart from considerable discomfort due to an ill-fitting seat.

But in terms of his initial feel with the car and getting to know the engineers and other race staff, the 41-year-old was enthusiastically happy.

"I'm much more optimistic now," said Alonso. "When I signed for Aston Martin, I was 90 percent happy.

"When they started improving and they finished the season on a high, I was 100 percent, now I'm 100 plus.

READ MORE...Alonso delight despite "pain in different places" after Aston Martin debut

"There was nothing that really surprised me. The car behaved well, although we have some concerns about the steering feedback."

For Alonso, this is in stark contrast to what he first felt in driving last year's Alpine.

"The first year, we had to work a lot - nearly five months - on the steering assistance, on feedback," recalled Alonso.

"So we [with Aston Martin] had some concerns that we spoke about over the last few weeks so it was a happy surprise I felt okay with Aston's system and we don't need to change it."

Another area that also exceeded Alonso's expectations was the Mercedes power unit.

Asked whether he was happy with the reliabilty, he said: "Yeah. When they told me the mileage of the engine on Monday night, I was concerned.

"I said that number is a little bit high for my standards, but we did 97 laps, no problem so it's outstanding."

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