“Fernando Alonso is looking very strong and incredible,” : Damon Hill makes predictions regarding Alonso’s retirement
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Damon and Fernando
Fernando Alonso has recently signed a multi-year deal with Aston Martin, and former Formula One driver Damon Hill has indicated that the Spaniard is still fast as ever.
Fernando Alonso even after turning 41 is giving the young starlets in F1 a run for their money and Hill is in total awe of the skills and raw pace that the former two-time World Champion has shown during the 2022 season.
Moreover, Damon Hill who hung up his racing boots at the age of 39 knows a thing or two about retiring at a later stage and feels that his Dad’s decision to keep racing till his mid forty’s had an impact on him deciding to retire at 39.
While stressing over it, Hill said, “I always had it in my mind that racing drivers should stop before they’re 40,”
“I think possibly because my dad kept racing until he was 45. And I remember journalists saying “you know he really ought to stop now, it’s looking a bit sad and long in the tooth and stuff” and he was trying to build his own team up So that might of registered with me as a negative.”
Hill further states that when he decided to retire, some drivers were twenty-five years younger than him in the sport. “I don’t know about you but I always thought that if I was going to be invited to a party and the kids were 20 years younger than me I would feel a little bit uncomfortable. So I started to doubt whether or not I should be hanging out with the kids in Formula One aged 40. That was one of my ways of dealing with it. I don’t know maybe that’s the wrong way of looking at it,”
Damon Hill: Fernando Alonso is firing on all cylinders
Fernando Alonso has been in supreme form during the 2022 F1 season and after 13 rounds, is one of the standout drivers. It speaks volumes of the caliber of the 41-year-old as it is not easy to go up against young talents at such a vast age.
Moreover, Hill has also been left amazed by the fighting spirit that Alonso has displayed this season and while appreciating the Spaniard has said, “Fernando is firing on all cylinders and looking very strong and incredible and of course, remember that Fangio didn’t start in Formula One until he was about 38 and he went on until he was way into the mid-40s and at a time where it was extremely dangerous so he must have had nerves of steel and incredible skill as obviously, we know. Which is the same as Fernando Alonso.”
Alonso has been associated with the sport for a very long time and despite that, he hasn’t lost his skills behind the wheel of an F1 car. He has still got that aggressive style of driving in him and Hill who keenly follows the sport while talking about him has said, “I think it’s down to whether you love it or not and you’ve got enough energy and you to keep yourself in good shape, then why not, why not keep going so Fernando could go till he was let’s say 40-. I’m going to pick a number, when is he going to retire? I think he will retire when he is 44.”
The 1996 F1 World Champion ardently believes that Alonso has still got quite a decent number of years left in him and feels that if he is able to keep himself fit then there is no reason for him to call it quits anytime soon.
Fernando Alonso has signed a multi-year deal with the Aston Martin franchise and considering how well he has performed so far in the 2022 season, he and the Silverstone-based team would be looking for much of the same next season and in the seasons after that.
But the million dollar question is whether he would be able to stay fit enough to meet the ever-increasing demands of the sport. Until what age do you think is Fernando Alonso going to last in Formula One?
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)