400 and counting! Alonso is breaking records.

400 and counting... Fernando Alonso continues to break race records as F1’s most experienced driver heads into his 400th Grand Prix. 

While unquestionably one of the greatest drivers in modern sport, history won’t put him on the same level as the likes of Fangio, Schumacher, Hamilton (and probably Verstappen). Why? Well, it's mainly down to poor judgement, bad luck, and his relationship with teams, not his lack of talent.

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Alonso has stayed in Formula 1 all these years, in the hope that he can still win the elusive third title he’s been searching for the last 18 years.

He sealed his second world title at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, ahead of Michael Schumacher’s last race at Ferrari. It may have been fitting for Alonso to fill the boots of Michael at Ferrari, given he was the young driver who had ended the Schumacher reign.

However, he went to McLaren. He wanted a big team where he could be guaranteed as No. 1 driver alongside a rookie. Unfortunately, McLaren’s history of not having a number 1 driver and this rookie teammate being Lewis Hamilton changed this. Their fraught relationship saw them no longer talking to each other and cost them both a chance of the world championship by 1 point to Kimi Raikkonen, who ended up being Schumacher’s successor.

Alonso also fell out with McLaren management and needed a new team. After rejecting an offer from Red Bull, he returned to Renault for two years, where they couldn’t deliver a championship-challenging car.

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In 2010, Alonso would finally make his move to Ferrari. He was the uncontested Number 1 driver, but these years Ferrari started to decline post-Jean Todt. Alonso still drove well, but Red Bull were clearly the team to beat with Sebastian Vettel. Alonso would finish runner-up to Vettel three times in four years, including narrowly missing out in 2010 and 2012.

Ferrari’s slow start to the hybrid era sent signs for Alonso that it was time to move. He tried Mercedes and Red Bull, but they were full. He decided to stay with the Scuderia, but they had thought he had agreed to leave and had already signed Vettel to replace him. This meant he had to look elsewhere, knowing he couldn’t sign for any of the top three teams.

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The only hope of a third championship was to return to McLaren and reconcile with its CEO, Ron Dennis. He ended up staying for four years, but it was a disastrous stint at the start of Honda’s unstable return to the sport. Alonso was so fed up with Honda, he forced Zak Brown to drop them as engine supplier, which only worsened McLaren’s problems, and he left the sport.

After a couple of years focusing on IndyCar and Le Mans, he decided to return for a third stint at Team Enstone and Renault (now rebranded as Alpine). Once again, though, he had problems with his teammate Esteban Ocon and the team’s management. He left for Aston Martin, which initially paid off at the start of 2023 but was never likely to be challenging for championships.

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His last chance for a third title now relies on Lawrence Stroll’s investment in the team and hopes that Adrian Newey can once again turn a midfield car into a championship winner for the upcoming rule changes. Even with Newey, it will be a mammoth task by 2026, given the dominance of F1’s front four teams.

The lack of the third title has been somewhat out of Alonso’s control, such as rule changes in the sport and politics. But is it all a coincidence? Every decision he’s made since 2006 has been the wrong one, joining Ferrari and McLaren at the wrong time, rejecting Red Bull, demanding the dropping of Honda, or putting his hopes on Alpine.

Alonso is a master of the dark arts, but that should be directed towards opposition rather than his own team. It often leads to a lack of trust between him and the team he is on.

Aston Martin may prove to be his best decision in recent times and has led to him back to the podium in 2023 and gives him hope to stay around in the sport till his mid-40’s and possibly beyond. However, it has been 18 years since a championship and 11 years since his last win, and that for a driver of his talent is shocking.

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