Alonso Bemoans 'Disappointing Moves' In F1 Before Aston Martin Change Which 'Paid Off'

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 15:00

Fernando Alonso is one of the most accomplished drivers in F1, but he's also one of the more unlucky drivers.

No driver has ever entered more Formula One races than Fernando Alonso, as the Spanish matador already has 378 race entries and 375 race starts behind his belt. He made his debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix and has been in the sport, with some breaks, ever since.

In 2005 and 2006, Alonso won the World Drivers' Championship with Renault, but his choice of teams after that wasn't so successful. In 2007, he moved to McLaren Mercedes, in a season that included a lot of on and off-track fights with his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

That resulted in Alonso's return to Renault, but this time around, the French team wasn't so fast. So after two seasons, the Spanish driver made a move to Ferrari and whether his stay with the Italian team was successful is very debatable.

On one hand, Alonso recorded 11 race wins with Ferrari and finished second in the World Drivers' Championship three times. On the other hand, he has never won the Championship with the team.

After those seasons, Alonso moved to McLaren in 2015, but his stay in the British team was far from successful, and after that, he left Formula One, thinking that he will never return again, as he revealed in a recent interview with GQ.

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"I thought that was it. 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. While I was doing different series and projects, I was always looking at what Formula One was doing."

And sure enough, the Spaniard returned to the sport in 2021, once again to a French team, but this time the re-branded Alpine. But two seasons in the French team were once again, not successful.

"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]."

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So after that, Alonso considered another team change, and this time, it was Lawrence Stroll's Aston Martin. The Spanish driver revealed that he had a talk with Stroll, and apparently, he was convincing enough.

"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."

Alonso, who recently finished third at the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, was surprised to see his team fighting for the podiums after his move, and finally after many years of team changes, this was not a disappointment for him.

"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."

With his days in Formula One being far from over, the 42-year-old has one more goal, finally move the number of his race wins, which has been stuck since 2013 at 32.

"I would love to make that 33rd happen. 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."