Despite being, at 41, the oldest driver on the grid, Fernando Alonso has shown throughout 2022 that he is still at least at the same level as his rivals, adding the benefits of experience to his great natural talent .
One aspect that has been fascinating this year has been observing the attention to detail that the Alpine driver puts into finding any competitive advantage.
At the Austrian Grand Prix, for example, he set about cleaning up his grid position during the final free practice session on Saturday morning, hoping his actions would give him a better start.
On the other hand, during the laps prior to the French Grand Prix, Alonso was the only one who drove excessively slowly at the pit lane exit.
That lack of speed allowed him to make a sharp left turn at the end of the pit lane exit to clear the line around the inside of Turn 1 and then the outside of Turn 2.
In his mind, everything was planned, since he had the intention of overtaking the other drivers during the first lap, taking advantage of the fact that the others thought that the circuit was too dirty in that area.
And that’s exactly what happened, as he overtook Lando Norris and George Russell early in the race by taking advantage of areas he had cleared moments before.
Alonso acknowledged that he really liked that people appreciate these little details: “Yeah, I mean, I’m that kind of person,” he smiled in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com before his move to Aston Martin was announced.
“I need to always give 100%, and I need to find a way to play off the strengths of others. But I do this in everything I practice, when I play anything.”
“Before I used to play tennis, and when I played against someone good, I put the ball very high. Because that way you stop their rhythm, since they are used to hitting the ball very hard.”
“Professionals are used to the ball coming very hard at them, so they’re used to those kinds of shots.”
“But when you put the ball higher on them, they make mistakes, because the ball comes very soft. So I can play better against them like that.”
“Putting the ball high is my only chance to beat them. So I do it automatically.”
“Not only in racing do I have to destroy the strengths of the rivals and try to maximize my own,” he added.
Alonso is also clear that his experience in Formula 1 has given him many advantages, which allows him to have a better judgment on the areas in which he should focus at all times.
“I think experience helps in a lot of ways,” he said. “To start with; the awareness of things, the tire management, the pit stops, the way you deal with the mechanics.
“Also, the way of approaching the weekend: the free practices, the importance of them, as well as the non-importance of them sometimes.”
“When you’re young, you pay close attention to every lap you do – even FP1 is like the last lap of the championship.
“That has made me improve a lot in wet and humid conditions. Normally wet racing is a long shot, you know, things change very quickly, there are a lot of safety cars, a lot of dry lines that will suddenly appear. So there are more chances”.
“Not every lap you do has to be like the last one. For this type of thing, I used to make mistakes at the beginning of the races that I now try to avoid. And this only comes with experience.”
The Asturian does not believe that experience and age have brought him something negative, especially after moving away from F1 for two years, something that allowed him to recharge his batteries.
“In terms of negatives, it’s hard to say anything, because I think I don’t lack anything that I had when I was younger,” he said.
“Maybe in 2018, I noticed that I was mentally exhausted from marketing and traveling and things like that. And I needed those two years off. But now I feel good.”
In these moments, Alonso thinks that he is now a much better version of himself compared to when he finished his first stage in the top category.
“I think watching the races from the sidelines, sometimes you don’t understand the different things that are going on during a session,” he said.
“From the inside, you don’t just have to focus on your driving and your own strategy, maybe I have a better understanding of how the race goes in general. Also the different categories I’ve competed in I think have taught me some different things.
“There are different philosophies in the racing world, different driving techniques. When you lose the car or oversteer, maybe my hands and feet now do something that I didn’t know before, because I’ve only driven F1 cars.
“So in a way now I feel like I’m more in control of things,” the Spaniard concluded.
