Fernando Alonso’s lasting threat in F1’s age of digital drivers

When Fernando Alonso was 22 — a couple of seasons into his F1 career and already a Grand Prix winner — I asked him what was his goal.

“I want every other driver to look at me and say, ‘He’s the best’,” came Alonso’s reply.

Today, in his record 21st season of F1 and still fighting towards the front of the grid with the Aston Martin team, he laughs at the recollection.

“Yeah, that probably was me back then,” he says. “And I still feel the same way. Now, I hope when you meet a driver, they have that respect, knowing that you were a strong competitor and someone that is not giving up.

“I think, 20 years later, some of those goals were achieved with the championships. I can still achieve good things when I have the right equipment. Even when the car is not 100 per cent, they still need to keep an eye on me. I will always be a fighter. I didn’t change my approach.”

Turning 43 this month, Alonso is a two-time F1 world champion and a phenomenon in much the same way as Tom Brady in NFL; an athlete who is still competitive in a cut-throat professional sport well past his 40th birthday.

That is a milestone Lewis Hamilton will hit in January, as he embarks on his new adventure with Ferrari. Other drivers have struggled to match their previous levels once they move into their fifth decade: Michael Schumacher is a prime example. His final seasons at Mercedes never matched the intensity or speed of his prime Ferrari years.

Later this year, Alonso will also become the first driver in history to start 400 Grands Prix — or 35 per cent of all the F1 races in the sport’s 75-year history. Although his car has been somewhat erratic this season, the Spaniard regularly qualifies close to the front and, last year, he scored eight memorable podiums for Aston Martin. So has anything changed in his driving and in how Alonso lives F1 today?

“Inside the car didn’t change much; when I close the visor, it’s exactly the same as 20 years ago,” he says. “I do enjoy a little bit more everything outside the car. The contact with the fans. Even sponsor events, I didn’t like before, it felt like a distraction. Now, I embrace it a little bit more. I feel it’s part of the job.”

That Alonso has only two world titles to his credit does not tell the full story of this talented sportsman. He won those titles before he turned 26, beating Schumacher twice, in 2005 and 2006, with Renault. He has since raced for McLaren and Ferrari and came agonisingly close to adding titles on three occasions.

The infamous Alonso statistic is that he is just eight points from being a five-times world champion, which might have been a more appropriate record for a driver of his calibre.

In 2018, he briefly left F1. After all the narrow misses, the years toiling in uncompetitive cars, the frustration had became too much. He joined Toyota and won the Le Mans 24 Hours twice and the FIA World Endurance Championship, the second most prestigious series after F1.

“It’s part of the sport,” he says. “I learned that throughout my career. At the beginning, it was difficult to process, to feel motivated after a thing that happened to you, or a failure. You felt it was not justice, it was not fair. But, at the end, you understand that this is part of the game, part of sport; NBA, football, it’s the same. I learned that with time.

“In 2018, when I stopped, I felt that it was just too predictable, the Mercedes domination was too much to really enjoy being part of the grid. We were just actors in the movie of Mercedes, not able to fight at any point,” he says.

In 2018, when I stopped . . . we were just actors in the movie of Mercedes, not able to fight at any point

“I had other challenges in my head with Le Mans and things that were more appealing. So I left. But, in 2021, after achieving the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans wins, I felt that there was a bigger challenge; trying to be back in F1 and to succeed again,” he says.

This weekend, in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Alonso lines up alongside rivals who are some 20 years his junior, such as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Alonso arrived in F1 in the analogue age, alongside drivers including Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen, and David Coulthard. The current generation are digital-first, gamers, trained in simulators and academies. So how do they compare as competitors and as people?

“Definitely, there are some differences. I think the older generation were a bit more genuine,” he says. “Different in character, in the way they approached racing and life. They were very tough competitors.

“Now, I would say that they are very talented — maybe more than before because of all the preparation, the academies, the simulator work, the technology, and data they have available to improve and learn quickly. They arrive in F1 more prepared.”

“But off track or with the helmet off, maybe they are a bit the same and more shy in the way they approach things. They have people who talk for them, for management, for media, for fitness,” he notes. “They’re well prepared, but maybe they lost a little bit their own character.”

He may be the analogue driver in a digital age, but no one could accuse Fernando Alonso of lacking character.