At 41 years old, Fernando Alonso is fighting at the front of the F1 grid once again. He joined Aston Martin ahead of the start of the season, replacing Sebastian Vettel who retired from the sport after the 2022 campaign. Alonso is aiming for his first race win in F1 since 2013, and Aston Martin’s strong pace might very well make that possible.
Currently, Alonso is aiming for race wins and fighting for the title, but over the last few years, his career choices have been very heavily scrutinized. Eddie Jordan, who was Michael Schumacher’s first team boss in F1, took a dig at Alonso saying that had he not made wrong decisions, he could have won more championships than Lewis Hamilton.
Alonso did not take these comments nicely and hit back at Jordan explaining why his choices weren’t incorrect. As reported by Soy Motor, he reminded everyone that for 16 years, he fought at the front of the F1 grid, fighting for podiums and wins.
Fernando Alonso takes a dig at McLaren while slamming Schumacher’s former boss
Alonso stated that in his 20-year-long F1 career, the only time he was ever truly frustrated was when he was in his second McLaren stint. After leaving Surrey in 2008, the Spaniard returned to McLaren in 2015 but it wasn’t the championship-contending team he left all those years ago.
McLaren was stuck in the midfield and was often unable to break into the points places because of Honda’s power unit issues. Alonso feels that this phase of his career was his toughest but other than his last four seasons at McLaren, he has no regrets about the choices he made.
“For 16 years I’ve been fighting for podiums and wins and that’s quite unique,” he said. “I would say that out of the 20 years I’ve been in F1, I’ve only had four frustrating years in a McLaren-Honda that wasn’t competitive.”
Alonso rues missed opportunity with Alpine
After his frustrating spell with McLaren, Alonso decided to take a break from F1 and spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons away from the sport. He took part in other racing ventures, and only decided to come back to the F1 grid in 2021 with his former team Renault, now known as Alpine.
Alonso felt that heading into a new era with widespread regulation changes, Alpine could fight for wins and the title once again. Unfortunately for him, his two-year reunion with the Enstone-based outfit did not turn out to be fruitful, and he decided to switch teams once again.
Alonso, now at Aston Martin, is competing for the podium places on a regular basis. The Oviedo-born driver will be hoping that this performance persists, and he can fight for wins and potentially the world championship, one last time before he retires.
