“I don’t have a plan B,” Fernando Alonso admits to being afraid of life after Formula 1
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso will be an Aston Martin driver next season, after a frustrating 2022 at Alpine in which he delivered great performance, but was often let down by the faulty reliability of his package. No driver suffered more retirements than the Spaniard this time around, but only if you count Mexico: technically, his retirement in Mexico City was a classified finish.
Despite the frustrating results, Alonso rates the season highly: Indeed, without Alpine’s reliability woes that gave him the shorter end of the stick, he would likely have challenged Lando Norris for the ‘best of the rest’ P7 spot. As it is, he was beaten to P8 by 11 points by teammate Esteban Ocon, who himself was a further 30 points behind Norris.
Speaking to AMuS magazine, Alonso compared how 2022 stacked up to his other great seasons: “I compare it to 2012 and 2018.” when quizzed on why he rated 2018 so highly, the Spaniard said: “Yes, 2018 felt good. My last year at McLaren. There are years when you have the situation and your car under control. And others, you have to adapt your driving style and things don’t go so smoothly.”
After getting used to F1 again last season, Alonso felt he was finally at 100 percent in 2022: “Last year I was only at 80 percent. A lot of things didn’t happen so automatically. If you’ve been away for two years, it takes a season to get back fully. Now I’m 100 percent in the sport again.” The criterion of a good season for Alonso is when he can drive at his ‘performance limit’, and when his instinct tells him that ‘everything fits together’.
Fernando Alonso will continue in F1 till he feels he can still ‘give 100 percent’
Fernando Alonso is the oldest driver on the Formula 1 grid (for 2023), and by quite some distance as well. He’s almost four years older than the next oldest person on the grid, which is Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard reportedly has a two-year deal with Aston Martin, with an option to extend, and he feels that he can ‘still give 100 percent’ for his current contract duration.
When asked on how much longer he wants to continue for, Alonso said: “As long as I have the feeling that I can still give 100 percent. So definitely another two or three years. At my age I have to approach many things differently. The training, the travelling, the events in between. Formula 1 is taking you more and more. You have to organize yourself well so as not to burn yourself.”
He further admitted that he is afraid of life after Formula 1, as he does not have a ‘Plan B’: “Yes, I have. I don’t have a plan B. I’ve been a racer all my life and I’m only good at it because I haven’t learned anything else. My life has always been dedicated to motorsport. And what I do best in this sport is driving. If one day I have to retire from Formula 1, I will do other races. A victory at the Dakar would still be a challenge. Because nobody has done it in this combination before. But sitting around at home scares me.”
In any case, for now, we at least have a few more years to enjoy Alonso’s driving. The Spaniard is a legend of the sport, and one of the greatest of all time. Not only that, he has a big personality. Formula 1 will surely miss him when he finally puts the steering down, and it will be a sad day. Even at 41, Alonso is still one of the best drivers on the grid, and if he doesn’t get that third title, it will perhaps be a disservice to his fantastic career and performances, even if the results haven’t always been what he would had wanted.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)