The surprising confession of Fernando Alonso

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso He opened up in an interview with the German auto-motor-und-sport Auto specialist website where he admits why he fears life after his sports career. Being at home, without races to face, is something that scares Oviedo.

“Yes, I’m afraid. I don’t have a plan B. I’ve been a racer all my life and I’m only good at this because I’ve never learned anything else. My life has always been dedicated to motorsport. And the best thing I do in this sport is driving. If one day I have to retire from Formula 1, I will do another race. Victory in Dakar is still a challenge. Because no one has done it with this combination before. But I am afraid of sitting at home”, sincerely Fernando.

And he once again recognizes that 2022 as a driver is one of his best seasons, but he does not know how much time he has left in the F1 ‘Circus’.

“I will continue as long as I have the feeling that I can still give 100%, so definitely another two or three years. At my age I have to face many things in a different way: training, travel, events… You must be carefully arranged so as not to burn.”

After two years of building something important at Alpine, he is not afraid to start from scratch at Aston Martin: “Zero. I know that. Aston Martin has a good platform. They have very good people and they build of a new factory with new tools “I’m leaving a lot of good things at Alpine that we’ve developed together over the past two years. It’s no secret that I had issues with the power steering response last year. Now he is perfect. Every rider on board Alpine praised management’s response. But that’s the opposite of getting Alonso and the downside of losing him.”

Despite the fact that in moving from Alpine to Aston Martin, the double champion will continue without experiencing a winning car, he assures that his motivation comes from the fact that “I love what I do. Of course I want have a car that I can drive for the title. But there’s no place for me there. From what there was, Aston Martin is one of those teams that can achieve that goal in two or three years. That’s important at my age. I don’t have forever as long as there is only one percent chance to win the title again, I’ll move on. And if it won’t work out as a driver, perhaps in a role outside the car. If we then become world champions, that will also give it’s my pleasure, because I can say that I helped build it. I’m happy to start a new project and make it successful as soon as possible”.

One of the reasons why he returned to F1 was because of the cycle change, but he admits that it has not been and the old balance of power has been maintained. “The new rules are one of the reasons I came back. They were originally supposed to come out in 2021. So I’m there a year early. And yes, it’s a little disappointing for everyone to realize that the things haven’t changed much. . “Mostly there are two teams that can win the races, as happened in previous years. And the gap between the top two or three teams and the midfield is still huge. In 50 percent of the races we are the same. lap from the winner. Therefore, we have not yet achieved the result that Formula 1 sought in resetting the rules.”

“I don’t think the budget cap will have a big impact. More like the rules. They are very restrictive. There is not much that can be invented. The best teams are quite close to the limit and the others will catch up,” said the Asturian .

As a driver, he is also not impressed by the new cars: “They are a bit surprising. The cars are very slow in slow corners. Due to the high weight, they now feel like they have 100 liters of fuel on board. . They live on the fast corners. And the higher the speed, the more grip there is. That was the case to a certain extent, but the effect of absorption as a function of speed is greater in these cars,” he. assessed.

“Last year I wasn’t very familiar with the car. Now I am. I felt the car from the first lap. Then there are great tools like data, telemetry, which help you compare yourself to your teammate. differences. I also benefited from it.”

Being 41 years old and fighting kids in their early twenties doesn’t have too many disadvantages, according to Fernando. “If a young driver passes you on the last lap in a physically demanding race because he is relatively fit, then age will be a disadvantage. But that’s not really happening. Otherwise, old age brings only advantages. I can draw from a large database of experiences. In Montreal, we only did a few laps in the rain before qualifying. I know the track in the rain from the past, I must have driven there five or six times on a wet track. Does it suit me? I drove 17 times on all the circuits on the calendar. Some of my colleagues maybe only twice. The training time is not enough to compensate for this advantage.”