Alonso and Losail, the circuit in which he believed again after crossing the desert

Despite only one edition to be held in 2021, the Qatar GP is marked in the history of racing by Fernando Alonso in Formula 1. On the circuit Losailin the midst of a title fight in between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, The two-time Asturian champion managed to steal their thunder in third place. In 2023, this was no longer common, but at the time it meant the end of a very long drought caused by the McLaren-Honda test and its first retirement.

Since Hungary 2014, Fernando Alonso has not been on the podium. There were seven years where there were more shadows than lights and that podium meant a ray of hope. The Spaniard achieved a first podium with Alpine in his first season after returning to the ‘Gran Circo’ and gave wings to the popular movement known as ‘The plan’. What was his 98th podium delighted Spanish fans before the second season with the French being the most disappointing.

Alonso’s strategy for that race was based on a superb start from fourth position, overtaking Bottas and Gasly to sneak into second place and squeezing a pace that was out of reach for the rest of the midfield. Stopping Verstappen is impossible and the key to everything is based on being able to close the door on Checo Pérez, who arrived with Red Bull in the middle of the comeback.

At that moment is where Esteban Ocon appeared. “Tell Esteban to defend like a lion”Alonso said on the radio. Nothing more said and done. Fernando’s Alpine partner endured Pérez’s attacks until he couldn’t take it anymore. But the Mexican lost crucial time which ended up preventing the Red Bull driver from attacking Fernando. Ocon returned the favor Alonso did him at the Hungarian GP in the same season a few weeks before, which ended with the Frenchman’s only victory in F1.

But as we say, the joy did not last long and that was the Alonso’s only podium with the French team. 2022 was a year full of abandonments due to reliability problems and Alpine’s doubts about the future and Fernando’s age caused the Spaniard to pack his bags for Aston Martin . The change, which seemed like a step backwards, bore more fruit.

Hard to repeat at Aston Martin

Although this year the expectations built on Aston Martin have been surpassed, Thinking about a new podium for Alonso at Losail is complicated. Those from Silverstone added a few podiums at the start of the season but only in the second half of the year They only added second place in Zandvoort for the Spanish and teams like McLaren or Ferrari are clearly one step ahead.

Furthermore, a priori the characteristics of the Qatari layout do not adapt in the best way to the performance of the AMR23. Aston Martin became more competitive on slow corner circuits and Losail is characterized by its great finish line of more than one kilometer and high speed curves. Therefore, the eighth podium of the year, and of course the famous 33rd victory, is quite unlikely.