“Welcome to Fernando Alonso Club”: F1 Champ’s 2-Word Response Left Commentator Embarrassed

Since making his debut in 2001, Fernando Alonso has driven for six different F1 teams and has had his fair share of teammates. As a result, he has encountered team orders multiple times over the years—some in his favor and others working against him.

Harry Benjamin banked on this experience when he asked Alonso a question last year. It was right after McLaren’s controversial ‘papaya rules’ team order in Hungary, that caused a rumored rift between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Benjamin simply asked the two-time champ what he thought about the same.

Alonso’s response, however, surprised the F1 commentator, and left him red-faced, as he admitted in his recent video. “No idea,” the Oviedo-born driver said in response to Benjamin’s question.

Benjamin, who was new to the paddock in a central broadcasting role in 2024, felt irate by not getting an appropriate response to what he thought was a good question. However, his journalist friends consoled him, by stating “Welcome to the Fernando Alonso club.”

In other words, it is in Alonso’s nature to give short one or two-worded answers when he looks to avoid getting dragged into the controversy.

Benjamin proud of his question now

2024 was Benjamin’s first full season in F1, so regardless of how his first-ever press conference went, he wears the question he asked Alonso as a ‘badge of honor’. From his perspective, it was a good question—because at 43, if anyone in F1 had a deep understanding of team orders, it was Alonso.

However, the Spaniard likely wanted to avoid being put on the spot. He knows how controversial the topic of team orders can be, having found himself at the center of such situations before.

Who can forget the infamous radio message from Felipe Massa‘s former race engineer, Rob Smedley, at the 2010 German Grand Prix? “Fernando is faster than you,” he told Massa, instructing him to concede the lead to Alonso.

The move was widely criticized, as Massa had done everything right to win that race. But with Alonso in a stronger position to challenge Sebastian Vettel for the Drivers’ Championship, the Brazilian was ordered to step aside.

With Alonso already having had such a controversial past with team orders, he perhaps did not want to get embroiled in another controversy, and hence, decided to avoid Benjamin’s question.