Fernando Alonso’s lasting threat in F1’s age of digital drivers

When Fernando Alonso was 22 — a couple of seasons into his F1 career and already a Grand Prix winner — I asked him what was his goal.

“I want every other driver to look at me and say, ‘He’s the best’,” came Alonso’s reply.

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Today, in his record 21st season of F1 and still fighting towards the front of the grid with the Aston Martin team, he laughs at the recollection.

“Yeah, that probably was me back then,” he says. “And I still feel the same way. Now, I hope when you meet a driver, they have that respect, knowing that you were a strong competitor and someone that is not giving up.

“I think, 20 years later, some of those goals were achieved with the championships. I can still achieve good things when I have the right equipment. Even when the car is not 100 per cent, they still need to keep an eye on me. I will always be a fighter. I didn’t change my approach.”

Turning 43 this month, Alonso is a two-time F1 world champion and a phenomenon in much the same way as Tom Brady in NFL; an athlete who is still competitive in a cut-throat professional sport well past his 40th birthday.

That is a milestone Lewis Hamilton will hit in January, as he embarks on his new adventure with Ferrari. Other drivers have struggled to match their previous levels once they move into their fifth decade: Michael Schumacher is a prime example. His final seasons at Mercedes never matched the intensity or speed of his prime Ferrari years.

Later this year, Alonso will also become the first driver in history to start 400 Grands Prix — or 35 per cent of all the F1 races in the sport’s 75-year history. Although his car has been somewhat erratic this season, the Spaniard regularly qualifies close to the front and, last year, he scored eight memorable podiums for Aston Martin. So has anything changed in his driving and in how Alonso lives F1 today?

“Inside the car didn’t change much; when I close the visor, it’s exactly the same as 20 years ago,” he says. “I do enjoy a little bit more everything outside the car. The contact with the fans. Even sponsor events, I didn’t like before, it felt like a distraction. Now, I embrace it a little bit more. I feel it’s part of the job.”

That Alonso has only two world titles to his credit does not tell the full story of this talented sportsman. He won those titles before he turned 26, beating Schumacher twice, in 2005 and 2006, with Renault. He has since raced for McLaren and Ferrari and came agonisingly close to adding titles on three occasions.