CHRIS HARRIS
Fernando Alonso’s latest F1 career move is the latest in a long line of head-scratchers, says Chris
Fernando Alonso is one of my favourite racing drivers His raw speed is still mesmerising nearly two decades after he landed in F He is also a very very strange dude Most people would be horrified by the inner workings of any racing drivers’s mind but Alonso’s must be the most terrifying of the lot I’d rather spit in Mike Tyson’s coffee than tangle with ’Nando because he bears a grudge like no one else
Remember the Hungarian GP? Alonso and Hamilton are teammates Lewis doesn’t play ball in qualifying Alonso allegedly tries to blackmail Ron Dennis about McLaren possessing stolen information concerning Ferrari’s racecar Seems a bit strong given the main issue was his teammate was annoyingly quick but that appears to be his way Small problem massive response
His departure from Renault a few weeks ago was a carefully choreographed stogram to its team boss Omar Szafnauer Now I have no idea how that relationship worked but it would seem Fernando decided to coordinate his exit with Mark Webber who manages Piastri so that once he was certain Renault’s option on a driver it has invested many millions of euro in had expired he pulled the pin And then Renault was left with not much And all of this came to pass because Renault didn’t want to offer Alonso years of age a multiyear contract Moderate problem enormous response Moreover the day this mess became public Alonso posted an arch Instagram post that demonstrated he was not only fully aware of what most people at the time assumed was just a communication error but that he found it hugely amusing
And this is where Flavio Briatore has to be mentioned He was and remains hugely influential in the sport Alonso has always been Flav’s boy and it is clear the former has learned his trade from the latter It’s earned Alonso vast amounts of money and afforded him the protection of one of the paddock’s big beasts
But how much has Flavio’s way of operating actually benefitted Fernando? Most people accept that Alonso is one of just a handful of epochal talents in modern F He’s a driver with no obvious weaknesses a match for Schumacher and Hamilton in the same career And yet he only has two world titles The statistics make cruel reading Alonso is actually only eight points away from having five world titles to his name and most of that shortcoming had nothing to do with him firing it off under pressure it came from poor decisions and career moves What would Alonso’s career have looked like if he hadn’t been managed by Flavio?
All those team changes made at the wrong time all those weird comments the underlying sense as a fan of the sport that we could see why things often weren’t working when he seemed unaware It really has been a soap opera rollercoaster for Fernando as Lewis calmly hoovered up titles I suppose it proves that if we waste too much time playing games we lose focus on the real goals
“I’D RATHER SPIT IN MIKE TYSON’S COFFEE THAN TANGLE WITH ALONSO”