Double F1 world champion, world endurance champion, two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona, Fernando Alonso has an extraordinary track record in motorsport.
The absolute crowning achievement of his career would be to win a 3rd F1 title, why not with Aston Martin F1 and Adrian Newey. Or to glean the Triple Crown, by triumphing at the Indianapolis 500.
But at 43, hasn’t Fernando Alonso reached the limits of his driving talents? Will he really be able to enrich his track record?
“There are always things to achieve” he told us.
Is he therefore aiming for a 3rd title with Newey and Aston Martin F1, from 2026?
“Formula 1 is my priority at the moment. I would love to win the Formula 1 World Championship with Aston Martin – that would be the highlight of my career and probably my life. »
However, the Spaniard does not forget other disciplines of course, such as the Dakar. But has he given up on his dream of becoming the second driver, after Graham Hill, to win the Triple Crown?
“Winning the Dakar Rally is still on my wish list. The Indy 500, of course, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again in the future – but for the Dakar, I will. It would be unprecedented to win the Formula 1 world championship, the Dakar Rally and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. »
“It all comes down to the same thing: I always want to improve – getting better is the main driver of my career. I am never satisfied with my current position. I want to be better tomorrow, and I want to be better next week and next month. This is what allowed me to stay in the race for so long. »
The best designer in the world?
To win a title in 2026, Fernando Alonso will have to provide the best possible feedback to the Aston Martin F1 technical team, recently reinforced by Enrico Cardile and of course, Adrian Newey.
This long experience and his ability to adapt have given Fernando Alonso an incisive and sharp look at every strength and weakness of an F1 car.
But how does Fernando Alonso go about uncovering the strong and weak points of an F1 car from its first laps? What kind of developer can Newey count on?
“You’re so focused on lap time, so focused on performance, that identifying which parts of the car you should prioritize to go faster is not that difficult. From the outside, when you see a racing driver jump into a car and immediately say what needs to be improved, it’s very difficult to understand how he does that, but when you are the one driving the car, you negotiate a corner , you accelerate, the rear wheels slip and you do not progress, you know that you need more traction, for example. »
“You feel the frustration of not getting out of the corner quicker. Your natural instinct tells you exactly what the car needs to go faster and you immediately communicate that to the engineers. »
“At the beginning of your career, you just provide information and feedback while the team tests different things. Towards the end of your career, because you’ve tested so many different modifications of the car – softer suspension, stiffer suspension, more rear downforce, less rear downforce, more camber, less camber – you develop an understanding of how the car will react to this specific change on this circuit in these conditions. »
“You provide feedback on areas of the car that need improvement, but you are also able to suggest the solution: ‘Remember when we tested the ride height of the car at this height on this circuit in these conditions, and we immediately gained more traction? It looks exactly like this, and we need to make this kind of configuration change.’ »
