It smells like gasoline, there are spare parts on the table and grease stains all over it. The chairs are plastic or folding. There are no yachts or caviar, no trace of F1’s old luxury. Fernando Alonso (Oviedo, 42 years old) receives the AS at the La Morgal circuit, In a warehouse full of karts, in the context of an event organized by Aramco ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP. Meanwhile, several students tour the facilities and the museum. After that, in first person, the two-time champion will take a few lucky people in his two-seater kart at speeds that are not worth driving. While the mechanics are being fixed, Alonso sits down with this medium and talks about the invisible race, the market, the rules … and home.
-When he last renewed he said that the Formula 1 environment was not basically his place because of the excess of luxury and everything related to the race. Here he is at home.
-Yes, of course it is more in line with the experience I had growing up. I love motor racing, but without the excesses of Formula 1. That doesn’t mean I don’t take advantage of them and try to have a comfortable life. And I do what I love, which is the premier motorsport category, and I enjoy what happens there. But it’s nice to disconnect and see the dirt, the smell of gasoline. It’s relaxing again.
—What does karting give you? It’s pure motorsport, without any packaging.
-First of all, it allows me to stay in shape and keep my reflexes awake. In the kart all the reactions are more sudden, everything is more direct for the driver and awakens the sensations and senses of driving. Also, I come to Asturias and meet my friends and family. It resets me after living in a bubble for three months between trips to China, Japan, Miami, airports, five-star hotels… Whatever F1 involves, until you come here to Asturias, you are with your family and they give you a good redefinition of the values of life.
—When you work with kids here on campus, how do you explain to them that the extraordinary thing in a driver’s career is winning? Is losing normal in elite sports?
-This is the hardest thing with campuses and parents, that’s what we’re trying to convey here at the circuit. Sport in general has more to do with failing than achieving good things. A footballer plays thousands of games and hopes to win half, but a driver races hundreds of races to win five or six. And this, when you’re a kid or when you’re a parent and your kid is in a kart, is very difficult to convey because there is extreme confusion. The right words you try to convey that message. ‘Motorsport’ should be Hobbylike when you go play paddle tennis, tennis or soccer on the weekend. Let it become a pressure much later, not when he is a child.
—How many great races go unnoticed because you fight for seventh or eighth place?
-Many. In a year, out of 24 races, there are six that are on the edge of perfection. Five of those six are ones that go unnoticed by the general public, because you don’t even appear on television. Conversely, there are times when you have the perfect car and you’re always on the podium, or in the foreground, and you’re praised for races in which there were three or four failures that no one notices. You pick the fruit when you don’t deserve it, and you don’t pick it when you deserve it.
“I’m going to take the 2026 regulation, of course I didn’t expect that”
—When you left F1 in 2018, or even when you returned in 2021, did you ever think about having such an extensive second phase in F1 at least until 2026?
-No, not at all. When I returned with Alpine I planned to do those two years, take the new 2022 regulations and see how the shots went. And in the end I’m going to take the 2026 regulation, of course I didn’t expect that. But the result is that it’s difficult to have a career in sports and especially in motorsports, where you depend so much on the vehicle. I felt very good in 2021 and 2022, the result was to renew for 2023. 2023 went exceptionally well and now in 2024 I’m still strong and motivated, and I’m looking forward to testing the 2026 cars. It wasn’t my idea when I returned to F1, if I didn’t feel 100% or so comfortable, Alpine would have been my last step.
-Being in the fight for the win in some races last year, how much of an impact does that have on continuing?
-It affects, when you don’t have weapons, you’re at the back of the grid and things aren’t going well, the motivation is never the same, no matter how competitive you are. It’s difficult to maintain the level of commitment and dedication without results and incentives. Last year fighting for podiums and victories was like extending my career by two or three years.
-In recent months, the pilot market has been special. Some interesting teams had the option available. Why were you so clear about what you wanted to do and did you not let yourself be swayed by team leaders who perhaps wanted to save a good second option for themselves?
—It’s never easy to get it right, nobody has the ability to know what will happen next year or in 2026 with the new regulations. I’ve always been very lucky in terms of being able to choose and make decisions on my own. The market is so volatile and active because no driver has the possibility to choose, and it’s at the expense of the team, and teams play with their weapons, waiting for the next race, waiting to see if that driver is released, always waiting. And that wait can be excruciating for the driver, because you don’t know very well where you’re going to race. I had the option of Aston Martin, which I hoped we would stay with. I explored two or three teams that could improve Aston Martin’s package, but I saw that the possibility was very low, or confusing, or that I would have to wait a long time, and I made the decision to stay with Aston Martin, which for me was really what I wanted.
-Eight podiums in 2023. The situation is different in 2024. Do you see progress at Aston Martin?
Domenicali: “There was no difficulty with Marquez”-Yes, I can see that. Last year eight podiums was extraordinary, eight podiums was fifth among constructors. That’s not normal. Also, we’ll see this year how many drivers make eight podiums with the second, third or fourth best car. It’s not easy to make eight podiums, much less with the fifth car in the championship. But let’s try, I don’t know if it will be eight but the championship is long. We have understood a lot of things about the car that we have to put into practice. In F1 there are no solutions from Monday to Tuesday, it can take three weeks for a part to be designed, produced, tested and put into the race. Maybe as a driver or as a fan that doesn’t make sense, because you want things for tomorrow.
in great shape
“Fighting for victory again has extended my career by two or three years”
—How do you build a winning team in F1? Apart from the chance part, what controllable elements or factors are there and which ones are there at Aston Martin?
-You need to invest royally, you need a brutal investment to have factories and equipment at the ‘top’ level. Then you need employees dedicated to the team, rowing in the same direction. And then, as a group, with 1,000 people working in an organization, you need them all in the right position. Sometimes the defender is playing the left winger and the striker is playing the goalkeeper, and you realize it two months later. It takes a while to identify the best potential among the thousands of people we work with, that’s why teams with great stability like Red Bull, like Mercedes, are teams with a great methodology that has a lot of work behind them.
—If tomorrow, in 2026, you have a car capable of consistently fighting for victories, do you have the slightest doubt that it will achieve its maximum potential?
-No (Small),
– Also considering Verstappen’s level.
—Verstappen will definitely be a rival in those conditions. But I have a lot of confidence in myself. Verstappen has shown that he is probably the only driver who continues to perform at the best level even in difficult conditions, it will be extremely difficult to beat him; but I have confidence in myself.
—There is a lot of discussion about the 2026 rules, which are technical regulations. Would you like a change in approach in the sporting regulations that would put more responsibility on the driver?
-Sure, but that’s the nature of F1. I would like more freedom of design, today all the cars are very similar to each other. There’s little inventiveness, if you start a regulation wrong you drag it to the end. When I was a kid, the F1s were very different. One with a high nose, one with a low nose, another with six wheels. Now that creativity is lost and I would like to see more of it.
-Racing without radio…
-They tried several years ago to remove the radios during the manufacturing interval and give the pilot more autonomy. But we see that in 2024, with the complexity that exists today with the engines, you cannot remove the radios because they are very complex vehicles even to start them. There has to be uniformity in what is done. It is like now, in 2026, putting an engine that weighs 40 kilos more because of the extra batteries and the engine with more electrical part, but at the same time we want to reduce the total weight of the cars; everything that is asked is a bit inconsistent.
“I don’t think the 2026 regulation will be a radical change, but it will be sold that way”
—How much attention does that 2026 regulation get you?
-Not much. I don’t think it’s a radical change. It’s going to sell the same way, because F1 sells every four or five years and it reinvents itself, but F1 is always very similar. But it attracted other manufacturers like Audi, other engine manufacturers were interested and it was done for commercial interest. But I don’t think there’s going to be a revolution in racing, in the weekend or in the competitiveness of the cars.
– We will finish in 2024. We come from four or five more open races. Not as open as in 2023, when it was just behind Red Bull. What do you think about that current competition and how do you think Aston Martin can move towards the top-4?
– Well, we have that difficulty. Last year Red Bull was ahead and we had chances for the podium because we fought with the weak Ferrari and Mercedes and the progressive McLaren. This year, if we want to take a big step in terms of performance to fight for the podium, we have to move towards three teams that are at a higher level. That’s what we face. But the fact that there is going to be more fighting ahead helps, and more teams fighting for victory also helps us because there will be more tension and activity between them, and hopefully we can fish in the troubled waters.
“With Loeb and Al Attiyah we have two of the best drivers in the world”
