Beyond The Score

 Fernando Alonso is 41 years old. Fernando Alonso has only been back in the sport for over a year. Fernando Alonso was back on the podium in a competitive car last week at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Yes, what a story, Fernando Alonso. The grin on his face said a million words. It made his decision to come back last season (which was frowned at by many) look like a stroke of genius. Although few would have expected it to work this well.

Perhaps seeing the Spaniard on the podium makes his early season struggles last season seems like a whole world ago. For goodness’ sake, he had to retire from last season’s opener due to a plastic bag stuck in his cockpit. Many claimed he didn’t have it anymore. The two-year sabbatical had taken its toll in the eyes of some.

Yet as the season progressed on the talent was clearly still there. Alpine looked comfortably the fourth quickest car. His luck though wasn’t there. It did create some spicy conspiracies. Jenson Button mentioned that in his time at McLaren, if Alonso was behind his teammate Alonso would often try to con the pit-wall into an early retirement. He said: “He was behind me, he’d say ‘there was a problem with the car’ and retire from the race! We weren’t scoring points, so he was saving the car for the next race, but he’d say ‘there’s a problem, there’s a problem!’

Why am I not surprised ? Alonso is a controversial character who is known for psychological games. In a way, that is why so many love him but why he also has his few who aren’t overly fond of him. Yet with his no-nonsense character, you get the impression he won’t be tossing and turning in bed at night, worrying at the thought of being disliked.

Overall though, Alpine on a performance level looked light years in front of McLaren and the rest of the midfield pack for that matter. Coming into 2023 many were tipping them to break through from the midfield and be challenging at the top end. Had it not been for the DNF’s, fourth place wouldn’t have been such a slog to wrap up that had to wait till Abu Dhabi. There had been rumours that Alonso wasn’t pleased that Alpine wouldn’t offer him along-termm contract (most likely due to his age). Other than that though, any reason for the Spaniard to demand a move away seemed far fetched.

Sebastien Vettel’s sudden retirement meant that there was a vacancy in the Aston Martin garage though. Alonso rather surprisingly jumped on this offer and signed a long-term contract with Aston Martin leaving Alpine without a number one driver for the following season. Alonso spoke about the move this week, saying to AutoSport “I don’t know even what to say, because eight months ago the project was just a bet. But now to be race one with a completely new car – which I think we need still to unlock a lot of potential – to be in the top five fighting with Ferrari and Mercedes, it sems a little bit unreal, but we take it for sure.”

Why someone would dare take a bet on a team that is substantially below them in the grid was a mystery at the time.

Especially with the recent exploits in Bahrain, it became even more difficult to forget the difficult period Aston Martin suffered last season. The first few weeks of racing were really poor and uninspiring. In Spain they completely changed their direction (rather controversially). Some said they had just copied the Red Bull sidepod design and yes, it did look rather similar. Not quite “Pink Mercedes-esque” though. Essentially the whole season was spent fighting for points without much luck and ending in seventh.

Yet, what had to be factored in was that Aston Martin switched their development progress very early on in the season towards 2023. It made sense as from the offset it was obvious to anyone with eyes that 2022 was a year that wasn’t going to provide much from them in terms of success. Standing on the podium last week, wearing the uniform of the second fastest car on that day, the “bet” seems to have paid off tremendously for Alonso.

What cannot be ignored though is what it says about the way Alpine is run. The fact that Alonso was willing to sign for a team that looked likely to be fighting for scraps at the bottom of the paddock rather than stay with a solid midfield outfit is telling. Yes of course, the lucrative multi-season contract deal plus the upcoming factory being built near Silverstone would have played a role in his decision to put pen to paper. The point still stands though: he believed in the Aston project more. Was it a case of genius on the part of Alonso or proof of the recent history that the French team has in letting drivers slip through their fingers?

It is important to remember that this is not an isolated incident. Heading into 2020, Daniel Ricciardo jumped ship from Renault to McLaren. The Aussie would go on to have a cracking season where he finished 5th and was arguably the driver of the season in terms of what he got out of his machinery. Or even more recently, the Piastri fiasco. When Alonso left, Alpine announced that Piastri would be joining them at the end of the season as a replacement for the Spaniard. Yet, on Twitter Piastri denied having agreed to this contract. It was a PR own goal that ended in them forking over £230,000 to their midfield rival.

In these situations it is often the Domino effect. The more you make a mistake, the more someone leaves you for another team, the more often it tends to occur. Drivers take notice and think, why are so many drivers leaving this operation? Before signing aboard they become that bit more wary. Alpine are a perfect example of this. Sure, the all French line up of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon isn’t too bad. However, it is safe to say that the Bahrain podium achiever that is Fernando Alonso certainly got the better end of the stick in this case.

All images Wikimedia Commons