Fernando Alonso made little attempt to hide his confidence as he predicted a "massive" change in his personal fortunes for 2023.
The Spaniard will embark upon a new chapter of his Formula 1 career, at the age of 41. His second spell with Alpine – previously known as Renault – has now come to an end and next year he will replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel at the ambitious Aston Martin team.
Judging by his comments towards the end of this season, that move could not come quick enough. After his infamous clash with team-mate Esteban Ocon in the Brazil Sprint last month, he made it clear he could not wait to get into "the green car", as he often referred to it.
Much of his frustration this year has come from his rotten luck. He has quite often had the pace to score big points at many race weekends, but was often thwarted by reliability problems – no other driver on the grid suffered more DNFs than Alonso this year.
And other problems affected him in practice and qualifying sessions too, to add to his frustration. Joking about it, the Spaniard said: "After ’22, I will have massive luck next year on everything – it has been amazing this year.
"I know there were a lot of talks after Mexico – five DNFs this year with engine issues – but there are another four races that I finished all without a battery, or the car didn't start in Austria, or I lost one wheel in the pit stop. It was amazing. Twenty races, and to have problems in nine or something, it's nearly 50 percent of the races."
Hampered by those reliability problems, Alonso finished ninth in the drivers' standings with 81 points – 11 adrift of Ocon. He feels that, had he not been so badly affected by breakdowns, not only would he have finished about the Frenchman but he would have been clear of every other driver not racing in one of the top three cars.
"I should be 60 points ahead of any other midfield driver this year," he added. He will be hoping to have the chance to prove it next year, joining an Aston Martin team which not only has ambition to match his own, but have also committed to giving him a multi-year contract.
Despite being in his 40s, Alonso is showing no signs of slowing down just yet. And the fact Alpine only wanted to offer him a one-year contract extension was a major factor in his decision to leave – as he wanted his place on the F1 grid to be more secure.
