Only winning matters
There was curiosity to hear, in the press conference organized by the FIA in Shanghai, the thoughts of Fernando Alonso. In this moment of dark crisis for the Aston Martin-Honda duo – which in the Asturian’s ideas should have instead brought him back to the top of F1 by taking advantage of this year’s regulatory revolution – the Spaniard seemed to want to take on the role of the team player. But the two-time world champion did not fail to get a few things off his chest regarding journalists and more.
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“Me in a ‘difficult mental phase’, as Newey said? I would say it’s less tough than people think – Alonso wanted to point out – I mean, it’s not an ideal situation. We all want to win. This year there are 22 drivers. One will win and 21 will be in a difficult mental state, because for me finishing third, fifth or seventeenth doesn’t matter much. I have been lucky and privileged enough to live through different eras in Formula 1 and to enjoy driving, and in the end I was super lucky to have competitive cars for half of my career and to be on the podium more than 100 times in this category. So for me now finishing in any position other than first represents the same pain. Obviously we are now on this journey with the team and it’s not the ideal start, but it’s the first year of this collaboration between Aston Martin and Honda and we have to go through this moment. And I am ready to help as much as possible“.
The precedent from 10 years ago
An attitude that from the outside seems very different from the one Alonso used a decade ago, again towards Honda, when the Japanese giant joined McLaren in what would later turn out to be another epochal failure: “Now I think I can see things with a different perspective and a different maturity, but I don’t think that ten years ago things were, again, so dramatic – Alonso stated – this is Formula 1 and it’s a very media-centric sport. When you win a few championships simply by racing against your teammate, you are God; when instead you struggle and go through a difficult period, everything is amplified”.
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“After 10 years, maybe some of the things people thought about me at the time, when we were in this situation, have changed – Alonso added – Now maybe they think I was right ten years ago. Because for me the biggest surprise was thinking that ten years ago McLaren, Stoffel [Vandoorne], Jenson [Button], myself – because people always seem to remember only Fernando, but I think we were all saying the same thing – we were saying that the project, the power unit, was not mature enough. Now this is something that everyone seems to understand. But before it seemed like I was crazy to criticize. I think this is due to some moments of frustration on the radio which, yes, were there: as a two-time world champion and a competitive driver, I was not happy with the situation. Now it seems to me that when everyone sees the current situation they are a bit friendlier with us and understand the problems better. What I can do in the team is simply work harder, try to help Honda as much as possible. We are a team: it’s a difficult start, but I hope it doesn’t last too long. But I know there won’t be an immediate solution either”.
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