Fernando Alonso: "I want to be better" –but circumstances never let me

Monaco, Le Mans, Indianapolis, Dakar… Fernando Alonso has fought for victory in the sport’s most prestigious races, but natural talent alone is not enough to succeed across so many disciplines. Step inside the mind of the multi-discipline World Champion as he opens up about defying time, logic and even the FIA’s race director through a relentless cycle of reinvention.

10,000 hours.

Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell proposes that this is the amount of practice needed to master a skill in Outliers: The Story of Success. Small wonder that having spent more than this amount of time behind the wheel of a racing car, over the course of a career spanning more than three decades, Fernando Alonso suggests he can reach a state of mind where he can drive “automatically” – even if it is just for long enough to watch his team-mate Lance Stroll pull off an overtake on the big screen.

Russia ’21, Miami ’23, São Paulo ’23, China ’24. What do they all have in common? They are all Grands Prix contested by Fernando, but they are also moments, in a singular career boasting many, where Fernando has done things differently to stay ahead of the competition – to be An Original.

As we shine a light on Originals, those who continue to strive for better, together with our partner Valvoline, we sat down with the skilful Spaniard to explore these moments, among others, and examine his racing mind – or as he calls it, his “hard disk”.

1 | The part where he gets defensive
From Lap 55 to the chequered flag at the São Paulo Grand Prix last season, you and Sergio Pérez were split by less than a second. You soaked up pressure lap after lap, crossing the finish line just 0.053s ahead after a defensive driving masterclass coupled with a clinical attack on the final lap to clinch the final podium. Positioning the car in the right places, deploying battery power at the right time, constantly changing lines; how do you strike the perfect balance between defence and attack?

You learn back in the days of karting how to defend and how to explore any possibility and any strength of your car. It can be the top speed, it can be the traction, it can be the performance in the high-speed or low-speed corners. And then you choose different parts of the circuit where you have to go very fast to avoid any attack from the car behind, and some parts of the circuit where you have to save a little bit: you can save the tyres, you can save the battery, you can save a little bit of fuel and use it later in the race.

There are always things that if you play a little bit more conservatively early on, you will have an advantage later in the lap or the stint. You have to process these thoughts and make these decisions very quickly in a race, you have to change your approach lap by lap because the car is not the same – it doesn’t weigh the same, there is less fuel in the car and the tyres are older. You’re constantly thinking in the car about ways to attack and defend.