The F1® Insider: Ageless Alonso just getting started
Thursday, 9 March 2023
Could Fernando Alonso snap a decade-long drought, and might that long-awaited win come in Melbourne?
For most teams not named Red Bull Racing, the season-opening Formula 1® Bahrain Grand Prix was one to lament rather than celebrate. Ferrari sacrificed a shot a pole to have fresher tyres for the race, couldn't keep up, and retired with engine failure. Mercedes suggested their 2023 car concept could be scrapped. McLaren? Let's not go there …
Sounds like doom and gloom, right? Not a chance. Because while reigning world champion Max Verstappen seemingly has the sport's present at his mercy, any conversation about a brighter future for the rest has to link back to the past.
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By taking his 99th podium in his first race for Aston Martin, the ageless Fernando Alonso lit up the night sky at Sakhir. In just one Grand Prix, the 41-year-old did what only one other driver (Lando Norris) managed in 2022 – halt the hegemony held by Red Bull, Ferrari and Williams on the top three. And if you listen to Alonso, third place is "just the starting point".
"This is not the final car, this is just the starting car of this concept that we changed over winter," he said after Bahrain.
"I think some of the top teams just kept the philosophy that they had last year. We have to change 95 per cent of the car. There is more to learn from the car, and there is more to come on our side."
Alonso's F1® career, which started at Minardi at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix where one of his opponents was Jos Verstappen – Max's dad – has two constants. One, he's always been in the right places at the wrong time; with a CV that has stints with Renault, Ferrari and McLaren, it's hard to believe that he's won 'just' two titles and none since 2006. And two, he's like a dog with a bone. Give him a sniff of a competitive car or a chance to fight for something meaningful, and inch towards the edge of your seat.
Alonso's Bahrain podium was a case in point. Out of position on track after a tricky first lap, Alonso hunted down former teammate Lewis Hamilton and compatriot Carlos Sainz in the last 20 laps. He had the speed to pass the Mercedes or Ferrari at either of Bahrain's typical overtaking zones at Turn 1 and Turn 4, but that wouldn't be on-brand.
Hamilton was dispatched with a down-the-inside gem of a move into the tightening Turn 10, while Sainz was surprised by an ambush into the uphill on-throttle Turn 11. He didn't need to attempt either pass, but did because he could. "Yes! Bye bye!" came the call over team radio after putting one over on Sainz. "I passed in not the normal places," he grinned afterwards.
Alonso's unrelenting approach has its genesis from that Albert Park debut and the 2001 season that followed, says Paul Stoddart, his former team boss at Minardi.
"He got much more out of a dog of car than that car deserved," Stoddart told the In the Fast Lane podcast.
"He could wring its neck and could get finishes where the car shouldn't have finished. He's one of those few drivers that come along from time to time that just have the feel for a car so perfectly that they can get half a second, one second, out of a car that shouldn't be putting in those times."
The present indicates not much might change at the pointy end for the immediate future – Mercedes' George Russell suggested after Bahrain that Red Bull "should win every single race this season" – but if you're looking for silver linings, look no further than F1®'s senior citizen.
From day one in a Minardi in Melbourne until now, it's rarely quiet, always compelling, and never dull with Alonso, and Bahrain shows the competitive fire still rages.
The Spaniard's 32nd and most recent win came at his beloved Barcelona in 2013, 155 races ago – but for the first time since, snapping that drought looks to be a possibility more than a pipedream. If Red Bull slip up or temporarily slide from their sweet spot, who's most likely to be at the head of the queue to capitalise? And where might that happen?
For all of Red Bull's accolades – six drivers' titles, five constructors' championships and 93 race wins – Albert Park has been the Austrian team's kryptonite, Sebastian Vettel's 2011 victory the only time the team has seen the top step of the Melbourne podium.
Red Bull not winning in Melbourne – based on that history – wouldn't necessarily be news. But if Alonso is victorious, 17 years after his sole Australian Grand Prix win for Renault? Now that would be something.
Based on Bahrain, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
