Fernando Alonso in Mexico will clock 400 race starts in his F1 career, the most by any driver in history. With the 43-year-old still racing in the apex motorsport series, one can only be in awe of the two-time world champion.
Yet, for Alonso, it’s nothing to boast about. In fact when he was asked, “How proud are you of that number,” Alonso replied with a simple “Not at all”. A really humble statement by Alonso, who can only see Lewis Hamilton around him among the active drivers with a similar number of appearances.
“I mean, it doesn’t mean too much for me right now because you are racing and you are focused on the next weekend,” Alonso added. But Alonso, at the same time, acknowledged the grandeur of his achievement. He realizes that not even a dozen people could ever match his feat, even though F1 has breached the mark of 24 races a year, far more than what Alonso had during his initial years.
Fernando Alonso will start his 400th F1 GP in Mexico
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“Knowing that no one reached that number in the past and maybe someone does in the future, but not many, let’s say a group of five or 10 maximum. As I said, you just demonstrated my love for racing”, he explained.
Alonso is contractually bound with Aston Martin till 2026, meaning he will be racking more race starts to his already glorious numbers. But there was a time when Alonso didn’t even want to stick for half of the time he has already done.
Alonso wished to end his career at McLaren
Alonso saw success very early in his career. He was only 25 when he became a two-time world champion. He had dethroned Michael Schumacher from the pinnacle of F1 and cemented his name in the history books back in 2005 and 2006.
He then joined McLaren in 2007, the favorites to win the championship that year. With him failing to win with the Woking-based team, he revealed later in the interview that he wanted to retire by 2009, the year when his deal with McLaren would have ended.
Neither did he see through the deal with McLaren nor did he end his career at 28. There were also a series of conflicts with Lewis Hamilton during his time at McLaren. As a result, Alonso ultimately decided to return to Renault, where he won everything, which was followed by a sensational move to Ferrari, and then a return to McLaren.
After finishing his second stint with McLaren at the end of the 2018 campaign, he announced his retirement from F1. However, he could not stay away from F1 for too long as he decided to return in 2021 with Alpine. Now with Aston Martin, Alonso never would have expected his career would be full of ups and downs, and certainly so long.
