Fernando Alonso: Too big for his own boots?

In the fifth chapter of this Driver Spotlight where I look at some of the best racing drivers who are still racing today, I look at a driver who’s always making the headlines. Sometimes it’s for the right reasons, sometimes for the wrong. But, he is a hardcore racer and he’s adored by many in the motorsport community.

Fernando Alonso had underachieved in Formula One. Two world championships in 2005 and 2006, 22 pole positions, 32 wins and 97 podiums from 305 F1 starts – it sounds pretty good but he wants more and he deserves more. He wants to be the greatest, up there with Schumacher and Senna. The stats don’t back that up but he is a talent and when he’s in the car; Alonso is exceptional and will maximise a car’s potential.

Only 15 Spanish drivers have raced in Formula One. You look at Spain and there’s hardly any car manufacturers; not a massive history with motorsport other than rallying and the motorsport industry itself is still quite small. If it wasn’t for Alonso then Spain would probably not be associated with motorsport at all and the Spanish Grand Prix may not be a thing today. A big plus point there.

Just a few years ago F1 went to Valencia so the F1 circus headed to Spain twice each season. Alonso made people switch on their TVs to watch him battle hard with the likes of Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. His days in Renault saw him not at his best but we could already see the passion he had then for Formula One, especially when he won his first title in 2005 in Brazil.

The Spaniard was and still is very determined and has had a reputation which very few can compete with which has stuch with him since he broke through the national karting championships in Spain. Winning the Euro Open in 1999 with Campos Motorsport and meeting Flavio Briatore in the same year was key to Alonso’s early success.

Alonso was the third-youngest driver ever to start a Formula One race when he made his debut with Minardi and he outqualified his teammate by 2.6 seconds around Albert Park. Briatore made Alonso Renault’s test driver in 2002 and in 2003 he would get his first chance in a competitive F1 car.

At the time Alonso became the youngest driver to achieve a pole position in F1 at the Malaysian GP and later in the year became the youngest driver to ever win a race after dominating the Hungarian Grand Prix. A good run if podium and points finishes in 2003 and 2004 would set him up for his first championship winning year in 2005.

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A lightning start to the year saw Alonso leading the championship comfortably from Michael Schumacher. The battle at Imola in 2005 was one of the finest drives that F1 has seen as Alonso withstood the pressure from a seven-time world champion in Michael Schumacher. Schumacher started 13th but an excellent strategy coupled with supreme pace put him on the back of Alonso’s gearbox with a stint to go.

The battle was incredibly intense and Alonso positioned his car perfectly as Schumacher danced around behind the Renault to try and overtake the youngster. Alonso held on and went on to take 7 wins and 15 podiums that year. The 2005 Renault car was probably Alonso’s most dominant car but he’s never had something like a Mercedes in the hybrid era, a Ferrari which wrapped up the championship before the summer break or a Red Bull which could take the field apart through in-season development.

Alonso after winning his first F1 championship:

“Spain is not a country with an F1 culture, and we had to fight alone, every step of the way, to make this happen”

His 32 F1 victories (6th on the all time winner’s list) doesn’t do justice to how good he is. In fact, the stats don’t. Alonso had consistently hauled any piece of machinery into a potential winning or podium position and to say that 2005 was his easiest season says quite a lot about his career and how good it actually is. The hard work hasn’t done justice in recent years.

According to Ron Dennis, it was just before Alonso went onto the podium in Brazil in 2005 that talks started between them for the now 36-year-old to join McLaren. Just three weeks later a deal was signed and Alonso was to join McLaren in 2007.

Alonso would go on to take his second and as of now, final world championship for Renault in 2006. It was again the electric start to the season, which saw him take nine finishes on the row either first or second, that gave him a nice buffer going into the final races. An engine failure for Schumacher in the penultimate race of the season meant Alonso needed just one point to take the championship in Brazil. He came second to become the youngest ever double world champion.

Some may argue that 2007 has and still is hurting Alonso’s career. It was clear from the get-go that Hamilton and Alonso wouldn’t get on. At Monaco, Hamilton had to play the number 2 role, in Indianapolis the McLaren duo battled it out for the win with Alonso swerving towards the pit wall and waving his fist in the air to show his frustration. He said that he “wasn’t comfortable with everything” from the get go.

Inter-team tensions at McLaren reached boiling point in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hamilton refused to follow the instructions of his team to give Alonso track position during the fuel-burning stage of Q3.

In retaliation, Alonso remained stationary in his pit box despite the lifting of the lollipop, blocking Hamilton to ensure that the rookie could not complete a final qualifying lap. He took pole position but was given a 5 grid place penalty for his recklessness.

On the morning of that race, Alonso and Ron Dennis were involved in an argument during the morning, in which the Spaniard allegedly told his superior that he had access to emails concerning the “spygate scandal” which Alonso was heavily involved as was McLaren test driver Pedro De La Rosa.

The years of 2005-2007 were Alonso’s best championship chances and he converted 2 out of the 3 to become champion. I want to do a summary of Alonso and my overall thoughts on this maverick.

McLaren should have won the title 2007. All in all the Ferrari might have been the better car by a very small margin, but McLaren had the better drivers.

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have won races, taken pole positions, championships and broken records whilst Alonso has been stuck with a car which either isn’t the fastest (2008-2014) or is one of the slowest (2015-now). Part of being a great in F1 is getting into a top team at the right time, which is at least one skill Alonso lacks and he isn’t as good off the track compared to on the track.

People will argue endlessly about how good Fernando Alonso really is and the numbers will tell you that he’s not as good as Vettel or Hamilton.

In my opinion, Alonso is not the outright quickest driver over one lap but he’s the quickest and the best over a race and over a championship season. He’s one of the best when it comes to wheel to wheel combat.

The lines he takes when he drivers defensively and attackingly are unique and he’s just so clever and adaptable to situations which makes him so great.

But his own flaws and mistakes contributed to his inability to win a title at Ferrari. You don’t necessarily need the perfect car to win the title, especially not in a three-way fight, which 2010 was. Ferrari could and should have done better in those years, but that includes Alonso. There were at least two titles to be won there, and they failed.

That said, what he did in those years to give himself a chance of winning a 3rd title is quite staggering.

His 2012 European Grand Prix victory is a personal favourite of mine. Starting 11th, then making his way through the field to be in a great position of picking up the pieces when the leaders hit trouble is exactly what Alonso does. He maximises results and was at his peak during that season. It was just such a shame he couldn’t win the championship because it would have been extraordinary. I will never forget that stare from him in Brazil when he missed out by just three points in a poorly developed car.

Alonso is destroying a man who dominated the junior categories just a few years ago. He convincingly beat Button on pace 2015-16 and beat Kimi Raikkonen across nearly every single session in 2014. Right now he’s dragging a McLaren to credible results, and is blatantly the best thing about their team.

McLaren need Alonso more than Alonso needs McLaren. He shouldn’t be celebrating an 8th place finish and it’s why he should leave McLaren and leave F1 all-together.

It’s fairly obvious that McLaren aren’t going to suddenly become class of the field in 2019 and even then the 2021 rule change is too huge of an unknown and it’s too long to wait, it’s more of a hope than a chance.

It looks like he can win the World Endurance Championship with Toyota in this current superseason and then who knows what he can do?

At this point, with this a Le Mans win in the bag, going all out for IndyCar and the Indy 500 over the next few years or competing in something like the Nordschleife 24 Hours race or taking on the Pikes Peak or Bathurst 1000 and maybe going back to F1 if things fall your way seems like a no-brainer.

Forget becoming an F1 legend (arguably already is), try and become a motorsport legend. Execute the Triple Crown and do something that nobody else has done.

Alonso is still very quick and he’s shown no signs of slowing down. I’m sure he wishes a 3rd F1 title for himself and achieving that target would give him peace. Just for all the hard work and constant great driving since his last title and his fans as well.

Despite this, he has the talent to do something much, much better and the determination and hunger is still there to do that. It’s not often a Fernando Alonso comes around everyday so whether you love him or loathe him, you have to admire his racing head and the way he goes about his racing.

When he retires for good, we will realise how good Alonso was and how much he will be missed by the motorsport community.