Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin will “need some help” from Red Bull to win a Formula 1 race this year but believes mistakes will creep in at some stage.

Aston Martin has emerged as the surprise package in 2023, trailing only the dominant Red Bull team after the opening two races.

Alonso followed both Red Bull’s home in third place at the season opener in Bahrain before following that up with another podium in Saudi Arabia.

The Silverstone-baed outfit’s impressive form has even led world champion Max Verstappen to suggest it could win races this season, despite fears from rivals that Red Bull could go the entire campaign unbeaten.

While Alonso is buoyed by the performance of his new team, he feels Aston Martin would need to rely on poor reliability or pitstop errors from Red Bull to triumph this season.

But the two-time world champion believes a slip-up is not out of the question after Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure in Jeddah qualifying.

“We need some help from them, but it will happen eventually when they cannot finish always first and second,” Alonso said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“One day it’s a pitstop, one day it’s a gearbox. Max had it and if he had it [in the race] he would have had to retire the car.

“So, there’s going to be some circuits where maybe reliability or whatever could help us and hopefully in those races, we take the opportunity.”

Alonso acknowledged Red Bull had remained “untouchable” in Saudi Arabia but was upbeat by the pace of the AMR23, which he felt was closer to the front that in Bahrain.

“A little bit closer. In Bahrain, they were, if they push, very far ahead,” he said.

“Here, they were ahead. They were untouchable for sure, but a little bit closer.

“So, that was good. We led the race [after Alonso launched better than eventual victor Sergio Perez in Saudi] so we have the first picture of Aston Martin leading the Formula 1 field for two laps.

“Hopefully it’s not the last one.”