The 2023 Secret Santa between the F1 drivers saw Fernando Alonso bag a handy gift from his Aston Martin teammate, Lance Stroll. As it turns out, Stroll was thoughtful enough to gift Alonso a particular accessory to go along nicely with his recent $2.7 million purchase: an exquisite boat he purchased in Monaco.
As Alonso pried the wrapping paper open, he remarked, “This [is] for the boat, which I have recently in this summer…I have a boat in Monaco.” He tried to guess who his Secret Santa was and could zero in on either George Russell or Valtteri Bottas. However, he was chuffed to know it was actually his teammate, Lance.
Alonso’s latest acquisition is a Sunreef Catamaran. The special thing about the boat is that the company, Sunreef is famous for building bespoke and customized boats as per the customer’s requirements. Naturally, Stroll’s gift was a sensible yet immensely thoughtful gesture for Alonso.
Alonso was himself a Secret Santa for someone on the grid. It wasn’t Stroll, though. Alonso drew Charles Leclerc in the cards.
Fernando Alonso makes a strategic Secret Santa gift for Charles Leclerc
Alonso gifted Leclerc a Padel racquet. However, despite Padel being a favorite pastime of the Monegasque, Alonso was clever enough to slide in a bit of marketing for himself, too. Alonso’s Padel-themed gift was actually from his own merchandising company that he now acts as a Brand Ambassador for, Kimoa.
As soon as Leclerc laid his eyes on the gift, he exclaimed, “Oh nice! It’s a Padel racquet. That’s actually a really good gift. Nice!” Safe to say, the Ferrari driver is one happy man after getting Fernando Alonso to act as his Secret Santa for 2023.
Like we stated, the Padel racquet was a Kimoa product. Alonso sold the brand to a US group named Revolution Brands. His decision was motivated by the fact that the brand was making losses upwards of the $3,000,000 mark in 2021.
For Alonso’s gesture, he did get rewarded in kind. Lance Stroll’s gift for the Spaniard was actually a Captain’s hat which had an inscription that read ‘Capitan‘.
