The extreme dedication enabling F1’s elder statesmen to prolong elite status

Formula 1 increasingly favours the well-rehearsed. The implementation of a budget cap that trickles down to cover sick pay and catering makes it far harder for a team to sit idle as an inexperienced driver squanders points and precious pounds smearing their car into a wall. Employing a safer pair of hands behind the wheel slashes the likelihood of an upcoming upgraded front wing and revised floor edge having to be scrapped just so the accounts can stay in the black. 

See Haas flicking a 23-year-old Mick Schumacher after his second term in the top flight. The European F3 and FIA F2 champion arrived with a decent CV, but a 2022 charge dogged by two seven-figure car-snapping spills led management to get shot of him in favour of rescuing Nico Hulkenberg, 35, from the sidelines. Since the team
 also recalled Kevin Magnussen (now 30) last year to replace ousted Russian racer Nikita Mazepin, whose rookie run was abject, Haas boss Guenther Steiner
 alone can take plenty of credit for the average age of the grid beginning to creep up.

Since 1986, when the average age of the entry list exceeded 31, the field has been getting ever more youthful. It finally bottomed out with a mean of 27 years and one month in 2017, a season after Max Verstappen made his debut while still awaiting a driving test. In fact, so baby-faced was the 17-year-old future double world champion that the FIA revised the superlicence system to ensure such an inexperienced and potentially dangerous operator would never again land a plumb seat so early.

The proliferation of sprint races might only encourage the preference for a tried and tested driver. Following the format changes ushered in just in time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the loss of two practice sessions augments the need for a team to rely on someone who can quickly get up to speed, validate a tweaked endplate and optimise suspension set-up.

Time won’t give me time

While the legislation leans towards older racers and the debate between F1 being sport or entertainment first rumbles on, this is still largely a meritocracy. If a young driver is quick enough, they’re good enough. Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough tells GP Racing:
 “We always just want the fastest drivers in our car. That helps us look better and get better results. It’s about being able to get the most out of a car in all the different conditions… any [level of] experience.”

That assessment reveals something about the Formula 2 protagonists who miss out on a full-time F1 drive, including Aston’s own reserve Felipe Drugovich. Since filling in for an injured Lance Stroll during pre-season testing, the Brazilian has been largely left to twiddle his thumbs in the back of the garage, top a rookie Formula E test for Maserati and pass on advice to compatriot F3 points leader Gabriel Bortoleto.

Verstappen made his F1 debut aged 17 in 2015, but teams have recently tended to favour experience over youthful exuberance

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

That the F2 calendar has been extended to mean the champion might not be crowned
 until the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, long after
 the F1 driver market silly season has concluded,
 doesn’t help the prospects of a promotion.


But as the successful graduations of Lando
 Norris, Alex Albon, George Russell and now
 Oscar Piastri prove, scouts usually get it right when it comes to identifying the brightest and best talents truly deserving of their place in F1. Likewise, even considering lacklustre AlphaTauri machinery, the eventual call-up for Nyck de
 Vries, who beat Nicholas Latifi to the 2019 F2 spoils, doesn’t suddenly feel long overdue in
 light of his slow adaptation.

New Williams team boss James Vowles, who formerly managed the Mercedes young driver programme, says of the cycles of the single-seater ladder: “Every now and again, you see some exceptional drivers come through. If I took the cases of Lewis [Hamilton] and George from my previous place, it was very evident in junior series to a certain extent that they were future champions.

"There’s probably even more focus nowadays than ever before from an athlete’s perspective on how to get absolutely everything out of your mind
 and your body. I’m still hungry as ever, and clearly Fernando is too" Lewis Hamilton

“In Lewis’s year, there were a number of drivers that made it to F1. Same with George, in the case of Lando. You seem to have bursts of them for whatever reason – groups of drivers move together through the junior series. It’s highly competitive.”

PLUS: Who will replace Hamilton on the British F1 throne?

While Alex Albon has hit his stride upon landing at Williams, it may be said that his earlier career illustrated the perils which await younger drivers. Red Bull, heralded for a junior programme which unearthed Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, abandoned a youth policy to leave its academy looking weaker than ever. The second seat alongside talismanic Verstappen has chewed up and spat out hot shots Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly and Albon and left Christian Horner to turn to reliable Sergio Perez, who was 30 when recruited for 2021.

Let’s go round again

Betting on a veteran doesn’t always work. The pace of a 41-year-old Kimi Raikkonen left plenty to be desired during his 2021 farewell at Alfa Romeo. The powers of seven-time champion Michael Schumacher were undeniably blunted
 by the neck injury sustained in a motorcycle incident prior to his 2010-12 Mercedes encore. But the supreme standards being set by the two oldest drivers on the current grid, Lewis Hamilton (38) and Fernando Alonso (41), show what’s possible when a driver successfully rages against the dying of the light. 

A greater understanding of physiology
 prompts drivers to work closely with dieticians and personal trainers, and sharpen up their reflexes on Batak-style light reaction machines – all assets the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio (46 when he won his fifth and final championship) had to do without. But when it comes to the longevity of Alonso and Hamilton specifically, they have proved exceptional at staving off the ravages of time. 

Alonso beat Hamilton to finish second in the recent Canadian GP. It was the 104th podium for the Spaniard, the 194th for Hamilton

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Of their secret to sustained success, Hamilton tells GP Racing: “Looking from afar and how Fernando is driving, the talent clearly hasn’t left him, and I don’t believe it does leave us. I think it’s to do with your work ethic. He’s clearly in great shape and doing an amazing job. 

“Racing is really in our DNA, in our blood
 and we don’t put less work in now than we did when we were younger. There’s more information out there, how to be fit and healthy. You see it with the greats like LeBron [James, basketball player] and Tom Brady [American football]. There’s probably even more focus nowadays than ever before from an athlete’s perspective on how to get absolutely everything out of your mind
 and your body. I’m still hungry as ever, and clearly Fernando is too.”

There’s a case to be made for the 1990s introduction of power steering easing the physical loads on drivers, something that might favour the older exponents. But the Pirelli tyres becoming less capricious since 2011 and fuel management not being as pronounced – reducing the role of lifting-and-coasting – has taken away some mid-race respite. Meanwhile, the two-hour humid physical onslaught that is the Singapore GP takes its toll on all, regardless of age. 

Alonso says: “All this experience and the background that we have is helping us to extract the maximum from the racing cars, and our strength or our physical condition is not the final factor to perform well. We need to be fit enough to finish the race fresh. But it’s not that more muscles or being younger will give you more top speed. This is a different concept that we need 
to tell the fans.”

Nevertheless, extreme dedication from Alonso and Hamilton has kept them fighting fit. Alonso was noticeably trimmer wandering down the Bahrain paddock for pre-season testing ahead of his Aston Martin debut compared with how he left Alpine. Hamilton’s shirtless social media snaps leave little about his physique to the imagination. Anything less than a wedge of pecorino could be grated on his abs. This speaks of their awareness of the ageing process and a drive to combat it by whatever sweat-inducing means necessary. 

It’s that determination which sets them apart from those more willing to slide into the retirement home for F1 drivers. McCullough adds: “Fernando’s really hungry. He’s working and training really hard. He’s so self-critical and wants to push himself to another level and over the winter has worked even harder. As you get older, do you need to work harder than a 20-year old? Maybe you do. But he’s so motivated, so up for the challenge.”

Mercedes technical director James Allison notes the same fire burning inside Hamilton. He says: “The main thing I put it down to isn’t the sport or the way the sport has gone, but just the slightly freakish nature of the gifts that Lewis was handed. He is dedicated, self-critical and still able to pedal the car like a young man.”

Seasons in the sun

Potentially harder to pin down are the precise sources of motivation in the twilight years of their F1 career. Adding to a tally of victories (Hamilton on 103 plays 32 for Alonso) and championships (seven versus two) is obvious. Plus, in developing Aston Martin into a frontrunner and restoring Merc to its eight-time constructors’ title-winning pomp, both have major parts to play in team-building projects that will go some way to
 shaping their legacy. 

Alonso and Hamilton are both driven by a burning passion to improve, and to win

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Alonso is also acutely aware of what it’s like to be on the outside of F1 looking in. As good pal Mark Webber notes: “Fernando is worried about being at home doing nothing. Now he has another chance. Now he can enjoy leading a team towards the next big phase of their career. He’s going to be so motivated now.” 

The Spaniard was content enough to bid farewell to F1 at the end of 2018 as the turbulent second era of the McLaren-Honda relationship showed little sign of taking him back to the top. Bored of the relentless PR grind, he had grown tired of the corporate nature of the championship and exited stage left.

Two seasons away were decorated by a brace of Le Mans 24 Hours triumphs and a 2018 World Endurance Championship crown with Toyota. He also dabbled with the Dakar Rally and Indianapolis 500. But that all proved disposable when the chance to join Alpine for 2021 arose. Ever since, and with a newfound appreciation
 for Formula 1 gained, his thirst for perfection hasn’t been quenched.

"As long as I feel competitive, as long as I feel motivated and I’m fast, I will keep racing" Fernando Alonso

Alonso says: “I enjoy things when I win at something. When I go karting, it’s because I know there is someone there and I will beat him, so
I like to be competitive. If I were a good golfer, I would play golf in my spare time. But because if I golf, I lose, I don’t do golf.

“As long as I feel competitive, as long as I feel motivated and I’m fast, I will keep racing. It will be one day that maybe I don’t feel fast, or I see telemetry and I cannot do that corner at that speed or I cannot brake that late or I cannot be in the simulator or in the meetings. So that day I will stop maybe.
But while I feel fast and I enjoy it, I keep racing. 

“In my case, the two years out of F1 were very important. Even if I was fast in 2018, even if I still enjoyed it, I was tired of the marketing events, the travelling. There were a lot of downs compared with the excitement of driving. They were not compensating each other. The two years out refilled the batteries, and now I’m enjoying
 on-track, and I have a fresh approach to the
 non-fun things.”

Similarly, by way of motivation, perhaps Hamilton has considered that the audience for his advocacy will sadly most likely diminish and his voice be less well-heard the moment he steps out of the spotlight. With those prospects, it’s enough for Hamilton and Alonso to jump out of bed and train to keep themselves close to their peak until age one day finally catches up.

There is a measurable recent trend of teams favouring experience to wring out every last drop of car performance, all while preserving points finishes and counting the subsequent prize money which hasn’t been squandered on avoidable crashes. A greater understanding of the human body and more available tools has supported that case. But even then, it appears that Hamilton and Alonso truly are exceptional as they seek to stay rorty well into their forties. 

Neither Hamilton or Alonso has any plan to step away any time soon, and neither should they while still operating at their best

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images