The “no bitterness” outlook keeping F1's ageless veteran on the front foot

He competes. It’s what he does. And at 42 years of age Fernando Alonso shows
no signs of slowing down – or of forsaking
his abiding passion.

“He loves it more than others.”

Pedro de la Rosa – podium finisher with McLaren, Bahrain lap record holder, Aston Martin ambassador
and Alonso’s compatriot and friend – doesn’t have to think too hard when GP Racing asks
him what keeps Fernando in Formula 1, and
why he’s still ferociously quick.

“The thing is, if I knew exactly why he’s so good, I’d be in that car,” de la Rosa laughs, nodding towards the Aston Martin garage. “But I don’t think there’s any other reason he’s still here. He has a very strong love for motor racing. And I don’t mean Formula 1. I mean any kind of racing.

“He calls me in December 2021 and says,
‘Why don’t we go to Dubai and do the 24-hour kart race?’ When he called me for the first time, I said: ‘Man, aren’t you tired? You just had a whole year of F1, and now you want to race go-karts?’ And he said, ‘Well, racing doesn’t make me tired.’

“So, we go there and he ends up being the fastest of our team, by far. He ends up doing the maximum number of stints allowed, which is about eight hours in total, and the rest of us do the minimum we can. He also acts like a team manager. He’s deciding the strategy. He brings his laptop, he’s in charge of the run plan. And it’s fantastic to see, because you realise the level of detail he goes into – in every type of racing – and how much he enjoys it and how much fun he has.

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Alonso shows
no signs of slowing down despite being 42-years-old

“And that’s the main reason he’s still at his peak, it’s because he hasn’t backed off. He’s training as hard as when he was 20, if not
harder. And that translates into this level of performance. Obviously, it’s not enough, other drivers could do the same. But then you add
a level of natural talent hardly equalled by anyone, and you get Fernando.”

Natural born winner

There’s a clear trend running through the list of drivers with the longest F1 careers. Six of the top seven positions – with Rubens Barrichello as the outlier – are occupied by world champions with 300 or more grand prix entries. All six are from the current century: Alonso, at the top of that list by some margin, is joined by Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

This is hardly a coincidence, given greater professionalism as well as calendar expansion. Today’s drivers are athletes in a much broader sense than at least some of the individual heroes of the last century – contrast the likes of James Hunt or Keke Rosberg with today’s clean-living, scientifically trained prodigies.

Today’s drivers also start younger and the
most talented ones generally stay longer at
the top – partly because Formula 1 is a vocation rather than a job for them, but also because
they remain in demand.

"Some people have natural talent, some people work hard. When you have the two things combined, the combination is incredible" Rob Smedley

“There’s absolutely no question about his natural talent,” says Rob Smedley, who observed Alonso during two phases of his career. “I saw it in 2000 when I was his Formula 3000 engineer. He had kind of moved from Formula Nissan in Spain straight to Formula 3000, which was a big jump. He didn’t speak any English, so it was difficult to communicate in the very beginning.

“But from the first test in Barcelona,
he turned up with his helmet, no preparation, and almost immediately he was massively on the pace – unbelievably so. I was in my early 20s then, but I knew enough about racing drivers to know when you found a gem.

“Obviously he was learning – new cars, a lot of power, a lot more grip, a lot more downforce than he’d been used to. But by the end of the year he was dominating. I think he had the win with the biggest lead in Formula 3000 history at Spa [ed: Juan Pablo Montoya won by over a lap at Pau in 1998]. His team-mate was Marc Goossens and Fernando won by, I can’t remember, something ridiculous [just over 14s]. He was just so good.

“Some people have natural talent, some people work hard. When you have the two things combined, the combination is incredible. He is unbelievably tenacious. He wants to get the best and the most out of every situation and doesn’t stop thinking about it.

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Smedley first recognised Alonso's relentlessness during his sole Formula 3000 campaign that culminated in victory at Spa

“It’s not a weekend job for him. It’s a vocation for him. And he’s totally and utterly committed to it. That’s the mentality of Fernando. ‘Good enough’ is never good enough for him. It has to be perfection.
And it’s a drug to him.”

Monk mode

Something sets Alonso apart even from his fellow greats. Schumacher and Raikkonen both kept racing into their 40s, but few would argue they were at their peak then. As family men, they had shifted their priorities towards home life long before retirement. The same can be said of Vettel.

“He just cannot have a family and this level of commitment,” says de la Rosa. “And when he retires he will. We all want to have a family. But I don’t think he’s at a point in his life where he would like to compromise. He gives it all,
no matter what he does. So whenever he has
a family, which for sure he will, I’m sure he’ll
be a great husband and father.”

Back in the McLaren-Honda days, when Alonso raced with Button, neither found competitive success there. And for Button, who struggled to find motivation to continue fighting for lower points-scoring positions, this would lead into his new life – a move to the US, starting a family and racing in other categories with a more relaxed schedule. Alonso, though, stayed the course, ending Stoffel Vandoorne’s F1 career in the process – including a qualifying head-to-head 21-0 in 2018 that wouldn’t have been possible if Alonso had slowed down even a little bit.

It’s the lack of any sign of Alonso’s focus diminishing that came as the biggest surprise to his current team principal Mike Krack.

“You have the expectation of a driver that joins you,” Krack tells GP Racing, “and who is, you know, 350 races, two world championships, 32 wins, moving from a team that on paper was fourth to a team that finished seventh… I had this before. We had Jacques Villeneuve at Sauber... I thought, ‘Whoa, this is going to be really difficult.’ But from day one it was positive energy, maximum determination. I was blown away by the approach and the level of energy.”

This is what makes Alonso stand out. His last F1 title was in 2006, his last win in 2013 – and since then he’s driven some truly mediocre cars which matched neither his level nor his ambitions. But after a brief pause-and-recharge in other categories he returned with Alpine in 2021 and a couple of months in was already at his best again, ferociously defending against Lewis Hamilton in Hungary. His latest move, to Aston Martin, had been agreed when that team was stuttering in the back of the midfield and in need of some fresh impetus.

Photo by: Sutton Images

Alonso was just three points shy of Vettel in the 2012 drivers' standings, and was four away in 2010, but he doesn't let those hardships weigh him down

Third time unlucky?

There’s another fascinating Alonso stat. He’s just a combined 11 points shy of being a five-time world champion, across his three last-race title defeats in 2007, 2010 and 2012. And that might also serve as strong motivation.

“I’ve asked him a few times about it,” says Jesus Balseiro, reporter for Diario AS. “He insists the third title is the big motivation for him and the big goal. He wouldn’t be here if a third title wasn’t possible. But I think it’s not the main focus he has now. He’s enjoying the day-by-day routine, every race weekend, even a bad weekend. He doesn’t look like he’s stressed or sad, like maybe in the past. So, I don’t think there has to be a third title. But of course, he’s pushing for it.”

De la Rosa, too, is convinced Alonso’s motivation is different to that of a gambler chasing a losing streak.

“No, 100%, that’s not what drives him,” he says. “In all the time I’ve spent with him, he’s never mentioned any bitterness of having lost the world championship in the last race. It’s one of his strengths. Whenever he’s had bad days, he puts them behind and moves on.

"In all the time I’ve spent with him, he’s never mentioned any bitterness of having lost the world championship in the last race. It’s one of his strengths" Pedro de la Rosa

“There’s no bitterness, no looking back. It would be difficult for me, or for someone else. I would look back and think,
‘I want revenge’. 
But that’s not his attitude. And this is what I like about him. He doesn’t have any baggage.”

Alonso’s reason for return was simple – he just wanted to race in F1 again. As he himself now says, a two-year pause helped him appreciate even those parts of F1 he hadn’t enjoyed before.

“Maybe in the past, he didn’t like that much all the surroundings of F1,” says Balseiro, “the events and marketing and media. But now I feel he’s having fun even with that. He knows this isn’t going to last forever. So he’s just enjoying every minute, sometimes even in spite of the results.”

“He reflected a lot in these two years when he wasn’t there,” agrees Krack. “I think, his time out of F1 made him also a different person, compared to… you know, I think there are really two different personalities. Generally, I think he’s a very friendly person. Very competitive, but very mature and very… integrating. Which probably, maybe if we had this interview 10 years ago, might not have been so right. Possibly.”

Photo by: Erik Junius

Alonso’s ‘bet on green’ has resulted in more trophies and a long stint in third place in the title standings

Career choices

Though Aston’s form has petered out of late after a commanding start to the season, Alonso’s ‘bet on green’ has resulted in more trophies and a long stint in third place in the title standings. For someone who has a reputation for making bad career choices, it’s been a mostly positive move.

Those close to him see that reputation as unjustified. After all, he moved to McLaren and fought for the title straight away; at Ferrari he was the only one who challenged the mighty combination of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. Ultimately McLaren-Honda didn’t work – but at the time it seemed less of a gamble than, say, Hamilton committing to Mercedes in 2012.

“In life, and in F1, if you have no choice, no one will blame you for anything,” says de la Rosa. “But if you can choose and then fail, people will always say, ‘Why did you go there?’ I think that’s an unfair stamp he has. Had he won those two or three championships [with Ferrari and McLaren], we would be saying how great his decisions were.

“The bottom line is he’s having a fantastic career. And in many years he’s been fighting for the championship until the last race. How great is that to wake up on Sunday thinking, ‘If I have a good day, I can win the championship’? And he’s been in a position to do that many times.”

Alonso choosing Aston wasn’t because he knew it’d be one of F1’s biggest surprises this year. That was simply a bonus. The move was an example of how Fernando prefers to be in control of his future rather than having terms dictated to him.

“I’m the master of my destiny”, he told Balseiro in an interview at the time.

“I was surprised when he left Alpine, I didn’t understand it at first,” says Balseiro. “Then, speaking with him, I started to realise his motivation. And I kind of like that way of thinking: ‘If I decide myself, no one else
can decide for me.’

“If he had kept waiting for Alpine, maybe he would have had to sign whatever they gave him. And maybe, one day, he would be out because someone else decided that.”

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Joining Aston Martin ensured Alonso kept his destiny in his own hands

Age is just a number

But the hard truth can’t be ignored, even if Alonso’s Aston colleagues have done well to avoid the topic of his age in the media. At 42, most of his career is in the rear-view mirror. For how much longer can he stay at this level?

“With the level that he’s operating at, I think [age] it’s just a number,” says Krack. “With the right discipline and motivation it works without a problem. You see Valentino Rossi, for example, or you see tennis players [like Roger] Federer,
he went really long in his career. Maybe we 
have to change our approach – age these days,
I think it’s massively overrated.

“When you see the desire... I had drivers that were not even 30 who were like, ‘I have achieved everything,’ even when they hadn’t achieved much. And then you have this example [of Alonso], with massive focus, massive determination.

“We aren’t even speaking about it [his age]. It’s you guys [the media]. That is the interesting bit. It was fortunate for us that his previous team was making quite a story out of it – that made it easier for us.”

"There are some drivers way over the peak at 40 years old. For some others, like Fernando, I don’t see an end. Why would you retire if you’re peaking?" Pedro de la Rosa

Time, of course, remains undefeated despite various attempts by wealthy individuals to turn the clock back (46-year-old US tech billionaire Bryan Johnson, for instance, famously mainlines his own son’s blood). There’s simply no knowing when Alonso will begin to feel the effects of age.

“It’s very individual,” says de la Rosa. “There are some drivers way over the peak at 40 years old. For some others, like Fernando, I don’t see an end. Why would you retire if you’re peaking?

“It’s not like he follows a different nutrition
or training programme. The thing is that he’s done it all his life. You don’t go on a diet to suddenly extend your career until you’re 50.
No, you need to have done it all your life.

“And you have to have the most important factor, the common denominator is passion. The moment you don’t have passion, it doesn’t matter. Because then you don’t follow your routine, you don’t train hard enough, you don’t dedicate the time. And this is why Fernando is
so strong at his age and will continue.”

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

This weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix marks Alonso's 375th GP start as he appears set to become the first driver to reach 400 starts

And this is the abiding truth of the matter. For Alonso – to quote an old Steve McQueen movie – racing is life. He doesn’t need the money. He
just has an unquenchable hunger to compete. And he loves doing it.

“I think the key to Fernando is that he doesn’t do this for the money or for the glory or for the success,” says Balseiro. “He’s here because he’s having fun. Because he loves being in F1. And he wouldn’t have that much fun anywhere else.

“For how much longer can he stay? For sure, 2024 and 2025. My doubt would be 2026,
I think, with the reg changes and the Honda engine. But that doubt is mine. If Fernando has
a strong 2025, there will be no doubts for him –
he will extend, for sure. If he’s still fast… And
he probably will be.”

Old dog, new tricks

Mark Arnall, former coach of Kimi Raikkonen, explains how drivers cope with the march of time.

“The physical side of things was never really the issue with Kimi. Obviously when you’re in your 40s you have to look at the way you train, but there’s no doubt he could have continued in F1 for a few more years. There were other reasons for stopping.

“Certainly, the training routine is different. When you’re working with a driver in his late 30s or early 40s, the focus is more on recovery. We had a cryotherapy chamber installed in Kimi’s house, which he used a lot, and we focused a lot of our nutrition on the recovery side. We had a detailed blood and urine analysis done so that every year we had a complete overview of everything that was going on in his body. That way we could see all the different stress markers and we could tailor a lot of the supplementation to counteract that.

“We would focus a lot on sleep, which is a big part of the recovery side. A lot of the functional training and a lot of the stability work was just more important. When you’re a younger athlete, you just bounce back better and recover faster.

“In terms of reaction, all the tests we’ve done, there’s been no difference. As you get older, things like reaction and eyesight can start to deteriorate – but that can vary from athlete to athlete.”

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Alonso still has an unquenchable hunger to compete