Formally, Fernando Alonso is 11 points behind his partner and 9th in the individual standings, while Esteban Ocon is one line higher. But the stats don’t quite paint the real picture as the Alpine team had a lot of equipment reliability issues this season and the two-time world champion suffered from them much more often – again, this happened at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Alonso, who had risen to 5th position in one of the stages of the race, retired on lap 63 due to engine problems. Fernando himself estimates his losses over the season at around 60 points, and he may well be right, as he failed to finish in Mexico for the fifth time this year.
Experts see, however, that the Spaniard, now in his forties, is still in top form and able to show impressive speeds, which is also confirmed by the score of qualifying matches with Ocon, where Alonso leads 11:8 (in Miami, Esteban could not participate in the qualification).
Jenson Button, who took part in the Sky Sports F1 channel’s evening broadcast the day before, is confident Fernando can “work miracles on the track” again next season.
In 2023, Alonso will drive for Aston Martin F1 and this team is now on the rise and the Spaniard’s experience and skills will be very useful to her, who will replace Sebastian Vettel, who decided to end his career.
“It’s hard to see an Alonso-level rider taking on all these challenges as he is now at his peak at 41,” Button said. – In addition, until the moment of departure for Mexico City, he had a completely combative mood, at least that was felt in the radio conversations with the team.
Before the pit stop, he was offered to switch to hard tires, the team believed they work quite effectively and Fernando responded quite positively: “Yeah, let’s do it.” It seemed like he was really aiming for a good result, but then something happened.
The engine problems started with his car and eventually it all ended in a meeting. Let’s hope that next year, when he drives for Aston Martin, such problems will be a thing of the past. Of course he also hopes that this team’s car will be more reliable and is ready to do everything he can to get good results, because he still has talent, passion and love for our sport. Then he will be able to perform miracles on the track again, I have no doubt of that.
Button knows what he’s talking about as he and Alonso were once partners in the McLaren team.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
