Habitual success can produce complacency, entitlement, or heightened ambition. Guess which one applies to Fernando Alonso…
It’s tempting to suggest that four podiums and a fourth place finish in the first five races of 2023 have re-motivated the 41-year-old Spaniard. But that would be unfair as I firmly believe he has been on the rise again since his comeback at Alpine in 2021.
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And unfair to Aston Martin, because the truth is that a driver whose passion and skill has never waned has once again been compared to one of the better cars he has ever driven in Formula 1. It has proven to be a tremendous confluence for both of them.
And it brought back the man from Oviedo’s sense of humor.
“Fernando, what can we say?” said old McLaren team-mate Jenson Button after the Miami GP as the crowd cheered jubilantly at his result. “Four podiums in five races. Now the smile is there, it’s great…”
“Not bad,” Fernando replied with deliberate understatement, while the pirate beard couldn’t hide his happy smile.
This is the man who won his first Grand Prix in Hungary in 2003, who edged out Michael Schumacher in 2005 and 2006, who subsequently bounced back from some unfortunate career decisions to broaden his horizons, win at Le Mans and the race get close to Indianapolis.
Still, like the wizard that he is, he is able to find footing where this crucial task at the highest level can defeat so many others. In his 40s he was racing as hard as he was in his 20s but with a lot more experience.
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For me, there’s no question that his reappearance is the biggest feel-good story of 2023.
And of course he would love more now. How about a second place? Or, to mention the big ‘I never forget’ beast in the F1 space, a 33rd win? Doesn’t it strike you as ridiculous that his last visit was in his home country in 2013? Or that, after China in 2014, he would only reach his next podium in Qatar in 2021? Look at them now: they come like London buses…
Hands up when he started from the front row in Miami I was hoping he could win somehow because the purist in me loves stories about misfits having their day. But while Red Bull and Max Verstappen are doing such a brilliant job, things like that will depend on the same misfortune that saw the world champion finish only ninth on the grid.
And within Lawrence Stroll’s burgeoning team, they are aware that many of their competitors are planning significant improvements for the next race at Imola in two weeks time, so no one is complacent. At this level of professionalism, ambition is tempered by the understanding that you have to fight for every inch.
But this ambition obviously remains unbroken with Fernando, because of course he is a racing driver. And in the DT Lexicon, it is the highest award that can be bestowed on another person. Because a racer is someone who avoids second best, lives their life at full throttle, strives to do their best, always looks ahead and fights for what they believe in.
Not someone who feels mistreated or who ever gives up. He’s still consumed by that mindset, still as fast and talented as ever at 41 years old. If a ballot was handed out in the press room with a list of candidates “Who has impressed you the most this season?” I know the opposite is true whose names I would tick.
And I speak as someone who wasn’t particularly impressed with him during his tenure at McLaren in 2007, or when he chided us all in 2010 for not understanding racing in Germany when he demanded the team orders that my little pal Forced Felipe Massa to give up the lead at the German Grand Prix to his Ferrari teammate.
When he pointed out to all of us that he was the man who started from pole, as if we had forgotten that our notebooks had every driver’s practice and qualifying lap times written down and somehow that gave him the right to pole seemed to be a leader, I wanted to ask him if he said racers or just qualifiers on his passport.
And if the former was the case, why not race instead of asking the team to get rid of the man in front? I seem to remember making an inappropriately loud and derisive comment at the press conference that day…
But that’s one of the things about Fernando. He has always been a rider whose passion and talent inspire strong emotions. I cheered for him as he won in Hungary in 2003 in that wide-angle V10 Renault and nearly broke my hand when he slammed the desk with joy as he claimed his second title in Japan.
But remember his comments on the ‘GP2 engine’ in his second McLaren Honda stint? I wonder if he thinks about it now when he’s chasing the Red Bulls…
This year he has also highlighted his exceptional intellectual prowess. In Azerbaijan he gave setup advice to teammate Lance Stroll over the team radio and this time he radioed to ask where Lance was headed as the Canadian put in his own strong race, moving up from the penultimate row to twelfth place.
READ MORE: The remarkable way Alonso watched teammate Stroll’s progress during the Miami GP
“Great move at Turn 1,” he remarked after watching his teammate overtake on lap 49 on a big screen…
“We have big TV screens in some of the slow corners so it was very easy to watch the race on TV,” he explained. “I saw an overtaking maneuver to the Alpines or the Alfa Romeo and was just curious about the position. [It was actually on the Alex Albon’s Williams] For us it was an unexpectedly lonely race. We had expected a more difficult race.”
2023 Miami Grand Prix: Alonso follows the action on big screens
This led to some amusement in the post-race press conference and ridicule from Max. “You’re like a life coach! At the last race you think: ‘Try my brake balance!’”
Nowadays Fernando knows which side his bread is buttered on. And he can laugh at himself, as he did when the radio aired commentary on Plan A-12. “I made a mistake! I just told them which lap I think the tire will be in good condition before the stop. And then I make a mistake because Plan A-12 was gone a few laps before. I apologized a few seconds later, they were already laughing on the radio, and then they realized I was saying something stupid.”
READ MORE: “After four podiums, obviously we want more,” says Alonso after finishing P3 in Miami
But for all the happiness and contentment, he admits a certain frustration is starting to creep in.
“It is! Of course we want to go one step further on the podium to get second place and at some point we have a chance to win a race – but at the moment that hasn’t happened because Red Bull are better than us .They are stronger, the car is faster and reliability has always been outstanding for them too, so yes, if there’s a crack one day, if there’s an opportunity, we have to make sure we’re in that position and at no point make mistakes at the weekend.”
He believes the fight at Imola will be “interesting again” but when asked about possible routes he could take on against the Red Bulls, he admits the season will be difficult.
“The gap is quite big, even though I think we had our best race pace so far today. I think we’re closest to the frontrunners, there are no safety cars, nothing in the race and we’re still pretty quick. So let’s see. I think the season will be long. Hopefully we can get a little closer to some tracks.
“And some of the improvements that we will introduce later in the season may put us in a different or more competitive position. But I think our main focus, to be honest, is just looking backwards and trying to keep Mercedes and Ferrari under control in the constructors’ championship.”
But Monaco maybe? Qualified driver, life coach, racer? It’s very obvious these days who of these Fernando really is. Could the Principality give him the best chance of an upset? Victory #33? If that happens, I won’t hit the desk quite as hard this time.
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