All that matters is winning
There was curiosity to hear, in the press conference organized by the FIA in Shanghai, the thoughts of Fernando Alonso. In this moment of black crisis of the Aston Martin-Honda duo – which in the Asturian’s ideas should have 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 ofman-team. But the two-time world champion did not fail to also remove a few pebbles from your shoes towards journalists and beyond.
“Am I in a ‘difficult mental phase’, as Newey said? I would say it’s less hard than you think – Alonso wanted to point out – I mean, it’s not an ideal situation. We all want to win. This year we are 22 pilots. One will win and 21 will be in a difficult state of mind, because for me finishing third, fifth or seventeenth, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve been lucky and privileged enough to experience different eras in Formula 1 and enjoy driving and ultimately I’ve been super lucky to have competitive cars for half my career and to be on the podium more than 100 times in this category. So for me now ending up in any other position than the first represents the same pain. Obviously now we are on this journey with the team and it is not the ideal start, but it is the first year of this collaboration between Aston Martin and Honda and we have to move through this moment. And I am ready to help as much as possible“.
The precedent from 10 years ago
A attitude that from the outside seems very different to the one Alonso used a decade agoagain towards Honda, when the Japanese giant joined McLaren in what would later prove 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 so dramatic again – ruled Alonso – this is Formula 1 and it’s a very media-focused sport. When you win some championships just by racing against your teammate, you are God; when you struggle and go through a difficult period, everything amplifies”.
“After 10 years maybe some of the things people thought about me at the time, when we were in this situation, have changed – added Alonso – 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 only remember Fernando, but I think we all said the same thing – we said that the project, the power unit, was not mature enough. Now this is one thing that everyone seems to understand. But before it seemed like I was crazy to criticize. I think this was due to a few moments of frustration on the radio, which yes, there were: as a two-time world champion and a competitive driver, I wasn’t happy with the situation. Now it seems to me that when everyone sees the current situation they are a little friendlier to 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 that there won’t even be an immediate solution.”.
