Why There’s Little Merit In Doubting Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin Move!

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso

Roses are red, violets are blue, why does everyone want ageing drivers to retire, I have just no clue!

Perhaps there are better things you’ve heard all day save this really lame joke, albeit one that does attempt to flag a concern.

Why does everyone feel that drivers soon as they reach a particular age must retire?

Lewis Hamilton, 37, luckily is not being extended that treatment that Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel have faced at different intervals of their careers.

Who knows? Maybe Lewis Hamilton, 103-time race winner, currently the most statistically successful driver on the grid could too have faced the ire of fans.

These are fans for whom, legends of the grid suddenly stop to matter, even if they’re doing a fine job in F1. Baseless theory or vile assumption?

Probably none.

Kimi Raikkonen was touching 38 when he set the fastest lap of Formula 1 history. In the 2018 Italian GP qualifying, the Finn went nuts, silently as ever, and set a blazing 1:19:119. Mercedes had the fastest car that year as many would agree. But Kimi, soldiered on. He was over thirty eight years of age when he won the US Grand Prix that year.

A year back, he proved himself to be no flash-in-the-pan when he clinched pole position at Monaco. At 37, he was managing quite well.

Fernando Alonso conquered a podium at F1’s first-ever Qatar Grand Prix. The Spaniard was 40. A few races ago, it was Fernando Alonso, not Esteban Ocon, who pushed Alpine- not a Ferrari or Red Bull-paced machine- to the front row at Canada.

So here’s a question to those who regard veterans as being nothing other than old guards of the sport. Dated. The “Have-beens!”

What would you say to a Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi and the likes?

What are these talented youngsters doing so as to sustain careers in a sport that holds scant regard for inconsistency?

So while we must all hold the right to pose questions at drivers, however we want, what sense does it make to question the existence of a forty something in F1 for as long as he’s performing.

Surely, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin-bound for 2023, isn’t getting any younger. But none in the Mike Krack-led stable has had one drink too many to have done a fool’s errand of signing the Oviedo-born, right?

Is Fernando Alonso not a double world champion? Have his efforts not done enough to push Alpine where they ought to be; they’re currently fourth on the Constructor standings.

In being ahead of teams like McLaren, Haas, Alfa Romeo has Fernando Alonso not done his bit?

Surely, the sport belongs to the youth. More than any other sport, arguably speaking, F1 and Mixed Martial Arts are sports irrefutably dependent on reflexes. And science has the answer that reflexes begin to get weak and even wane out with time.

One doesn’t get any younger, unless of course, you’re reverse ageing like Brad Pitt’s Benjamin Button and living in fantasy world.

But then truth also is that lads like Raikkonen and Alonso are once-in-a-generation talent. Not many would’ve stormed to a sixth having started sixteenth and that too at the opening lap at the wet and wild Portuguese GP of 2020. Likewise, not many would’ve done what Fernando Alonso’s done in the past and is still doing.

He drove a nearly deflated Mclaren with three punctured tyres to the pits at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and finished in points. He set the fastest lap that very year at the Hungaroring and that too, on the penultimate lap of the contest when the Ferraris and Mercedes’ had far more speed.

There are things only a few can do; and the rest can only react to with jaw-dropping excitement. Which is why Fernando Alonso’s switch to Aston Martin in 2023 is exciting and maybe not as dull or shocking as how some are viewing it.

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Alpine F1 Team. Miami Grand Prix, Friday 6th May 2022. Miami International Autodrome, Miami, Florida, USA.
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