Fernando Alonso has spent a lot of the second act of his Components 1 profession pondering his luck and, amid the swings between the higher years and extra frequent leaner spells, he has concluded that over a decade with out an F1 win “would not sound correct”.
The 2-time champion’s final F1 victory stays his 2013 Spanish Grand Prix triumph, his thirty second within the championship, as alternatives to win a thirty third have confirmed sparse at greatest.
The next years have been characterised by equipment incapable of mounting challenges for wins: 2014’s Ferrari was a step backwards after the introduction of the V6 turbo-hybrid engine formulation, and his change to McLaren – lured by the prospect of becoming a member of a works Honda workforce – was disastrous. Even the workforce’s change to Renault engines in 2018 did little to maneuver the workforce ahead, because the chassis division had taken its eye off the ball.
Alonso thus known as time on F1, a transfer that transitioned to a two-year sabbatical. He rejoined the championship in 2021 to exchange Daniel Ricciardo as Renault grew to become Alpine; though he himself was not in with an opportunity of victory, he no less than pitched in to make sure Esteban Ocon broke his duck at that 12 months’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
However Alonso’s misgivings about Alpine started to develop. A collection of powertrain points all through the 2022 season led to the Spaniard switching to Aston Martin – Sebastian Vettel’s retirement left an open seat. Whereas 2023 began brightly, because the Dan Fallows-designed AMR23 was the one automobile capable of maintain a candle to Purple Bull’s exalted RB19, frequent podiums didn’t fairly grease the wheels in direction of race victory.
Many take into account that 12 months’s Monaco race to have been Aston’s greatest shot at a win, however an ill-fated tyre cease for slicks earlier than the heavens opened snuffed out any remaining victory embers. Alonso needed to console himself with second to Max Verstappen and, within the years since, has labelled himself as maybe F1’s unluckiest driver. Many with out championships, wins, and even factors, would possibly dispute that – however it’s equally true that Alonso’s expertise hasn’t essentially been capitalised on.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23
Picture by: Erik Junius
Taking a much less hyperbolic view, nonetheless, he means that the run of his 418-start grand prix racing profession has largely equalised the nice and the unhealthy – but in addition stays pissed off by the delay in attaining his thirty third win.
“Good luck, unhealthy luck, I believe 50-50 to be sincere. The factor is that whenever you do 400-plus races, there are a whole lot of races with good luck and a whole lot of races with unhealthy luck, however I believe all the things compensated,” Alonso mentioned.
“Even after I went to Le Mans, the second Le Mans [2019], we have been two minutes behind the chief [Toyota’s #7 car] one hour earlier than the tip. Then they’d a puncture, after which they’d a wheel that was not correctly accomplished and so they had a double pitstop on the next lap after which I received the second Le Mans. [For context, the #7 had a faulty tyre sensor that indicated the wrong wheel had a puncture; Toyota changed one, then realised the other was the culprit and had to stop again.]
“That was a whole lot of luck on our aspect. So all the things compensated. However yeah, in all probability over 20 years, I believe, or possibly greater than 10 years that I received my final F1 grand prix. It would not sound correct to me.”
Over 2025, Alonso has typically felt slighted by technique; at Zandvoort, for instance, Alonso made his displeasure often known as he’d stopped moments earlier than the protection automobile when Lewis Hamilton crashed. He recommended his workforce “forgot about me within the first half of the race”, then later complained that the workforce “at all times put me in visitors” when requested in regards to the steadiness of his automobile.
Alonso estimates that he is misplaced “22 factors” this 12 months by means of ill-fortune. He feels that, when the automobile is aggressive, he loses factors in tough races – when it is uncompetitive, the weekends go easily. Maybe that outlook has been dictated by his Monaco race, the place he seemed set to interrupt his factors duck in 2025 earlier than encountering a powertrain problem.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Picture by: Clive Rose / Getty Photos
“We’re already as much as 22, I believe. It is a disgrace that we can not end the races on benefit once we are within the factors,” he mourned. “After which once we are gradual, as a result of we’re uncompetitive, usually issues are at all times clean and good till the checkered flag and we rating no factors.
“However that is the way in which it’s and that is the game, the character of the game. And so long as subsequent 12 months we’ve automobile, we’re in regular luck. We do not ask for good luck, however regular luck is okay.
“Dropping 22 factors, it ought to sound prefer it’s not a lot. We aren’t combating for the world championship, so why ought to Alonso care about 22 factors in a season like this?
“Nevertheless it’s a whole lot of effort and willpower to attain each single level when the automobile is simply capable of rating one or two factors per weekend. To lose 22 is an enormous quantity.”
