Fernando Alonso bid farewell to the F1 community at the end of the 2018 season, celebrating his career’s conclusion by performing donuts alongside Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in front of the Abu Dhabi GP crowd that year. However, just two years later, Alonso made a surprising return.
Midway into the 2020 campaign, Alpine (formerly Renault) announced that Alonso will re-join the Enstone-based squad, with whom he won the 2005 and 2006 Championships. Soon it was clear that he didn’t come back to just hang around, as two underwhelming seasons with Alpine prompted him to chase more glory, which is when he joined Aston Martin.
“So when I stopped in 2018, I felt that Formula One was not really interesting. The domination of the Mercedes Power Unit was way too much to really enjoy the sport,” he said on the Chequered Flag podcast.
hamilton, alonso and vettel doing donuts in abu dhabi 2018 lives in my head rent free pic.twitter.com/3kBYQKwLTo
— (@inspiredf1) October 7, 2021
While away from the sport, Alonso saw how competitive it was becoming again, which is why he decided to come back. “I think the sport [is] in a much better place now where four or five teams can fight for wins or for championships,” he added.
Today, driving for Aston Martin, Alonso is thinking about silverware again. In 2023, he registered eight podium finishes, which reignited his hunger for winning the title. He signed a contract with the Silverstone-based outfit until at least 2026, and he may choose to continue depending on how the team fares at that moment.
F1’s ever-increasing competitiveness
F1 introduced new regulations in 2022, which were meant to bring the grid closer. It took some time for those effects to take shape as Red Bull emerged as the dominant team, and by some margin. In 2023 for instance, the Milton-Keynes-based team won 21 out of the 22 races on the calendar.
However, behind them, the competitive signs were always there. Other than Red Bull, none of the teams were that far off each other and the 2024 season was a true testament to that.
Red Bull was no longer the fastest team with balance-related issues plaguing their performance, which allowed the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes to start fighting for wins. And they did, with all of them registering at least three wins throughout 2024.
It was one of the most competitive seasons in recent history, setting the stage for a four-team battle for the crown in 2025. Sadly, Alonso wasn’t a part of the party, as Aston Martin’s performance was still far off the top four. That’s something the Oviedo-born driver would like to change, or else he may lose motivation to compete again.
