Fernando Alonso expects upgrades at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix to help Aston Martin take “another step forward.”

Alonso has scored five podiums from the opening seven races of the year and arguably lost out on victory in Monaco due to a poor call on tyre strategy.

However, the Spaniard could do no better than sixth in Barcelona two weeks ago in what was his worst result of the 2023 campaign.

“I think it should be it should be a good weekend, but you never know until you hit the track,” Alonso said.

“We also had the expectations in Barcelona and we didn’t perform on that race, so yeah, let’s see.”

This weekend’s upgrades come hot on the heels of a package introduced in Spain which included a new front wing, nose, and rear wing.

“We have a couple of new parts in the car as well, on this race, so depending on the weather, we will try to test them and validate them,” Alonso said, noting the forecasted wet weather throughout the weekend.

“Always trying to improve a little bit,” he added in terms of his expectations for the new parts.

“Our car has been a completely new project for Aston Martin, a completely new philosophy, new concept of how the car works.

“We we’ve been discovering things on every race this year and I think it’s the optimisation of the package.

“We’ve been constantly bringing new parts to the races. This is another step forward. More to come in the future.”

Heading into the Canadian weekend, team owner Lawrence Stroll said he’d like to see both Aston Martins on the podium.

Such a result would mark the team’s first double podium since Sergio Perez won the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix with Lance Stroll third.

“It is an aggressive target for the weekend,” Alonso cautioned.

“But we know Lawrence, the ambition of him is super high, always, and we will try to make him happy and proud in the home country.”