It’s been five months since Drive to Survive released its 5th season on Netflix, and every fan immediately caught on to the “anti-hero” claims made by Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso for himself and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The ace Spanish driver, while in conversation with BBC’s Ben Anderson, has since cleared the air over what he meant back then.
Having joined Alpine in the ’21-’22 season at 41 years of age, Alonso consistently felt a lack of support from his team, owing mostly to his age. The Spaniard found it baffling that while other teams judged him based on his ability, his team saw only the date of birth written on his passport. With an ever-increasing amount of frustration piling up at Enstone, Fernando Alonso left the team to replace the outgoing Sebastien Vettel in Aston Martin.
With the departure of Alonso imminent, Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as their driver for the ’23 season. However, an embarrassing few weeks for the French squad followed, with Piastri taking to social media to announce that he wasn’t going to drive for Alpine. In the days to come, it was revealed that he would suit up for McLaren from 2023 onwards.
Thus, Alonso claimed that because of this fiasco, he and Piastri had a similar image in the F1 world.
A year since he made the claim, Fernando Alonso provides an important clarification
With the deal between Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin already in place before the end of the ’23 season, Alonso knew he wasn’t going to be a popular figure amongst the Alpine fans. Thus, during an episode of Drive To Survive, Season 5, he claimed to be the “anti-hero” of the F1 world, along with youngster Oscar Piastri.
During a conversation with Ben Anderson of the BBC, Alonso provided a much-needed clarification on what he meant when he made the bold claim.
“Eventually because they have more power and more exposure or whatever, Piastri and myself were the ‘bad ones.’ We were just praying, and the first days of August, we were just, I was moving to Aston Martin, and Piastri was answering some tweet or something about the confirmation of the drivers.”
Since joining Aston Martin, the 42-year-old has had a much better time as compared to his spell at Alpine. Being led by his experience, the Silverstone-based outfit took everyone by surprise after securing five podium finishes in the first six races of the season. In his third season back in the F1, Alonso sits in third place in the current driver standings, only a point clear of Hamilton. Meanwhile, Aston Martin is also third in the constructor’s standings, 5 points ahead of Ferrari.
The ‘Magic Alonso’ is working well for Aston Martin
Since Alonso joined, Aston Martin has found exactly the kind of success they would have hoped for when they brought the veteran on board. While the ’22 season saw them gain only 55 points in the constructor’s championship, they have already bettered their performance by a considerable margin. A further six podiums this season, as opposed to zero from last year, has provided an additional boost to the Aston Martin team.
Things were going well for Aston Martin, but they have faced a setback since the Canadian GP, with McLaren taking full advantage of it. But their team principal, Mike Krack, has not resorted to the use of “easy excuses” and instead knows exactly what has gone wrong with their performances. He believes the way they have developed the car is the reason behind their performance, and they are working on upgrades to improve the car’s performance in the latter half of the season.
While the team’s engineers and mechanics are busy doing their part, Alonso is also hopeful of taking his team to the top during his final few seasons. He believes he will still be very proud of the team if they were to win without him behind the steering wheel.
