TREMAYNE: Alonso’s resurgence is the biggest feel-good story of 2023 – and his best shot at a win is soon to come

READ MORE: 5 Miami Grand Prix winners and 5 losers – who was on fire in Florida?

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.

PALMER: A win for Alonso in 2023? After his master class in Bahrain, I wouldn’t bet against it

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.

READ MORE: ‘He deserved a lot more’ – Verstappen backing Alonso to break decades-long winning streak in 2023

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.

READ MORE: ‘I always believe it’s possible’ – Alonso insists he still has his sights set on third league title

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.”