Why Alonso is coming back to F1
When Fernando Alonso used the word “retirement” to describe his decision to walk away from Formula 1 at the end of 2018, few thought it would prove permanent. Sebastian Vettel even said in a video message to his former rival: “See you when you come back.”
That made confirmation last week of his comeback in 2021 with Renault both surprising and unsurprising. Yes, Alonso is back, but for a driver who stated that he only wanted to return to win, joining a manufacturer that finished fifth in last year’s championship seems like an odd move.
Alonso is thinking long-term. “I think with the new rules in 2022, there is a chance of having a more equal championship,” he explained. “I’m aware of things. I have not been underground for two years. I know that only one team will win in 2020, and will win in 2021 probably.
“The 2022 rules will hopefully bring some fairness to the sport and will bring some close action. Having that in mind, there is enough time to work on those projects, and to build the momentum that I think we need. I’m relaxed. I’m aware of what 2021 will be. And I’m hopeful for 2022. This is a matter of building something together.”
Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has already stated that Alonso “has almost no interest in 2021”, knowing the team will likely be fighting for little more than best-of-the-rest honours. But he said he is “comfortable” with how Alonso – who won the world championship for Renault in 2005 and 2006 and had another spell at the team in 2008-09 – has bought into the long-term project at Enstone, even after a disappointing recent spell.
“We’ve been able to talk to each other, and we also have been able to talk with a number of senior members of the Renault organisation that has confirmed that there is some familiarity between his way of thinking and our way of thinking,” Abiteboul said. “We know that Formula 1 is brutal, also in the comments that we are receiving when we are on the back of negative performance, but this proximity will I’m sure allow us to go through the hurdles and get to better days.”
The presence of a two-time world champion is a marquee signing for Renault to replace the outgoing Daniel Ricciardo alongside Esteban Ocon. Alonso will be nearly 40 by the time he returns to the grid but, as his efforts in the World Endurance Championship and the Dakar Rally have shown, he remains one of the top performers in world motorsport.
“As far as I saw in Formula 1 for many years, the stopwatch is the only thing that matters, not age,” Alonso said, as well as revealing he recently did a fitness test that delivered “the best result ever in my career”.
But as we saw through Alonso’s difficult second spell with Mclaren from 2015-18, anything less than a winning car leaves him dissatisfied. His anger over Honda’s lack of performance aided the fracture in Mclaren’s relationship with its engine manufacturer. Even at Toyota’s WEC LMP1 squad,
“COMPETITION CAN BE TOXIC ON PEOPLE. NO MATTER HOW HARD
YOU TRY OR WORK, YOU CAN’T WIN”
when there was just a single car to beat, Alonso’s will to win led to internal issues.
Abiteboul is not oblivious to this, but told Autosport in an exclusive interview he is confident that Alonso has shaken off the “toxic” baggage of his recent past.
“I think the years that he had away from the track have probably been an opportunity for him to reset, and probably to come with a fresh set of mind,” Abiteboul said. “Competition can be toxic on people, on individuals. No matter how hard you try, or how hard you work, you can’t win. And it’s the sport that is doing that. I’m not surprised that a sport that’s like that is creating this type of situation and therefore legacy, but that’s also why he [Alonso] was so interested in this new profile for the sport, and maybe the opportunity of bringing a new Fernando into a new F1.”
And that is what Alonso’s comeback is really about: his legacy. Had his F1 career ended with a penalty-laden, futile run to 11th in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2018, he would have been remembered as a nearly man. Yes, a driver who deserved more than two titles, but one who wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time largely by his own doing.
Now Alonso has the chance to right some wrongs. While it is still a long shot to expect Renault to catapult to the head of the F1 pecking order by 2022 in a way that could deliver Alonso a third title, it should at least give him a chance to scratch his competitive itch, and perhaps fight for a bit of added silverware.
But should Renault fail to deliver on its plans for 2022, this comeback risks being a final, repeated act in the Alonso F1 saga.