Fernando Alonso has been around the block more times than most. He's started a record-breaking 378 Grand Prix races. He's changed teams seven times, won two world championships in the process with Renault and has already retired once. At 42, Alonso also is the oldest driver on the grid, four years Lewis Hamilton’s senior, and has never ventured far from drama. He effectively brought the shutters down on Michael Schumacher’s career; his and Hamilton's rivalry at McLaren was so incendiary it ultimately cost them the title in 2007. He had his up and downs at Ferrari and an unsuccessful return to McLaren before retiring in 2017. Given last year proved to be a largely fruitless return to the grid with Alpine, no one could have predicted how well Alonso and Aston Martin – his latest team move – would click this year.
“I spoke with Lawrence [Stroll, owner of Aston Martin] about the possibility of joining the team after Sebastian Vettel's [retirement] announcement, and he was very convincing in selling the project and all the new people that were joining,” recounts Alonso about his surprise switch. “In the design office, there were big names coming from different teams. I saw a lot of talent. There was also a new factory being built and coming into place this year, so there was a big project behind this team, and it was happening, it wasn’t just talk. Facts were supporting Lawrence’s words. I thought it was a logical move for me, if I wanted to aim for something higher than my previous team. It didn’t take long for us to join forces.”
During the Fernando Alonso retirement years, he made attempts in IndyCar and IMSA in the US, and competed in the 2020 Dakar, but his real commitment was to Toyota in endurance racing, with whom he won the Le Mans 24 Hours and the World Endurance Championship in 2018 and 2019.
“I thought that was it,” he says of his 2017 retirement. “I was not thinking to come back to Formula One. I left a small door open, because of the new regulations and this new generation of ground-effect cars [which came in from 2022]. It was maybe something that could be attractive one day in the future. While I was doing different series and projects, I was always looking at what Formula One was doing.
"Then, in the pandemic, I remember being at home and putting on the table what possibilities I had for the following year after finishing the World Endurance Championship. I thought that only Formula One was in good health. All the other categories had a lack of sponsors, most of the races were cancelled, whereas Formula One remained very strong even during the pandemic. So, I thought the next challenge could be the ultimate challenge: to come back to Formula One and try to be competitive again.”
Renault-owned Alpine remains a shadow of the team it was during Alonso’s first stint with the Enstone squad two decades ago. The best he had to show for his two seasons with them was a third-place finish at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix. “I have a lot of respect for Alpine. It’s the team [as Renault] that gave me my two world championships, so it’ll always be in my heart, I will never wish anything bad to [them],” says Alonso. "It’s true that whenever you change team there is always this thing inside, where you look at your lap times and position and immediately you look to those of your ex-team. If they’re behind you, there’s always a bit of relief that you made the right decision. Ideally, I would have Aston Martin winning and Alpine second. Fighting for podiums would be the best.”
Alpine are a long way behind Aston Martin in the constructors’ standings this year with Alonso currently fourth in the driver’s championship behind Verstappen, Perez and Hamilton. Did he predict how quick Aston would be this year?
“It was a nice surprise, we cannot lie. We had some hopes, as I say, with new people joining the team. They seemed to know what they were doing, but this was a long-term vision. We were thinking in 2023 we’d be consistently fighting in the top ten, and maybe a podium or two would be possible, and then in 2024 be a regular contender for the podium. We found ourselves regularly fighting for podiums in the first half of this season, and that was definitely a surprise, so I was happy. As you say, after some disappointing years and moves in Formula One it was very nice to feel that a change of teams this time really paid off.”
For 60 years, Aston Martin has traded off its association with the world’s most famous fictional spy. Now it has more to shout about than Sean Connery and Daniel Craig. Fernando Alonso is now the not-so-secret agent that’s prompting the showroom sales on Monday, after the race. It’s no coincidence the most popular colour for Astons is no longer silver, it’s racing green. Alonso’s daily driver is a beefy DBX 707, and it’ll be joined in his Monte Carlo garage by the £3 million 1,000bhp highly-limited yet road-legal Valkyrie in a few months. Sounds Bond-like but, in contrast to the movie hero’s government-sanctioned wheels, Alonso has had to pay full price for his. “I’d hoped for an employee discount! That was my wish, and I took it for granted probably. I went through the specification with them – green with a touch of lime, to look like my F1 car – and then looked to see what the discount was. There was no discount! By then it was too late. It’ll attract some eyes, this car,” he adds, “I will not be able to go incognito.”
With Verstappen running away with this season’s championship, Alonso has been one of the only factors that’s made it interesting, consistently outperforming teammate, Lance Stroll. Aston Martin is currently fifth with McLaren 21 points ahead, but that doesn’t really play on his mind. “This came a little bit too early, this success. It’s never too early, but it was a little bit unexpected. There is plenty of time for Lance to pick up good results and for us to become champions in the future. I think the pace and the points are not telling totally the truth, to be honest. There were a couple of occasions where Lance lost a lot of points; exhaust failure in Jeddah when he was P5; he had the rear-wing [problem] in Suzuka while fighting for points. We could have been third in the standings without a bit of bad luck. Looking to the future, that’s the aim; to have two drivers scoring as many points as possible.”
Alonso sees his future with Aston Martin as long-term. He's happy, more content than we’ve seen him at any time since the championship-crushing pomp of his mid-twenties, and his reaction to unfounded rumours about a move to Red Bull reflects such. Speaking last week, he told the press in Brazil: “It is just rumours, normal paddock rumours, from people who that are just trying to make fun of it and gain some followers [on social media],” he said. “I’m not into that game. I think it’s not funny.”
Concerned by a perceived lack of loyalty, he has been inspired by how Hamilton – originally cast as his student at McLaren – carries himself and has always remained respectful of his crew and teammates. But if the Englishman had been saddled with the kinds of cars Alonso has toiled with for the last decade, might he have quit too? “It’s difficult to say. We have different personalities and motivations. Lewis always did really well to stay focused and competitive in the periods of his life when he didn’t have a competitive package. Those periods weren’t many, but he was always performing to a high level. Now he’s not having the best car, Red Bull is dominating, but he’s still fighting always. He’s chasing Perez in P2 and he’s never giving up. It motivates all of us to see how Lewis keeps the motivation after winning so many titles.”
One senses the old conquistador won’t countenance retirement until he’s scored that elusive 33rd grand prix win, at the very least. “I would love to make that 33rd happen,” he says with a chuckle. “There’s been a lot of talk about it on social media, 33 is a number I see everywhere, and I would love to have it. I feel fresh, I feel fast, and I’m enjoying the journey with Aston Martin. I feel motivated. It’s not the time to retire yet.”
