After he blew out 42 candles during the Belgian Grand Prix event, Fernando Alonso is the oldest driver active in Formula 1 at the moment.
The two-time World Champion continues to confirm himself among the fastest drivers on the track, showing that he still has a great desire to fight every weekend. He has bagged six podiums in 2023 to date and is over 100 points clear of teammate Lance Stroll in the standings.
In the end, age is just a number and the Spanish driver is firmly convinced of this, as he explained after the Belgian Grand Prix. He cited AlphaTauri’s decision to bring back Daniel Ricciardo into the fold, too.
“I think people already saw it’s not a big change when you are 41 or when you are 25. It’s more in your head, in the motivation, how you approach the weekends.”
“Races like today or the starts of today… or even a few examples in other teams, they bet more on experience like Daniel [Ricciardo] now in AlphaTauri and things like that. It’s not about youth, it’s just about going fast.”
Photo credit: Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team
The first half of the season for Aston Martin was excellent. Thanks to the magnificent work done on the AMR23, which has proved to be a really competitive car capable of battling with the top teams for the most part, and thanks to Alonso’s brilliance behind the wheel, they sit P3 in the both championships.
The Spaniard commented on these first few months at the team.
“Incredible, a dream first half of the season. We are P3 in constructors Championship in front of Ferrari. We are P3 in the Drivers’ Championship together with Lewis [Hamilton]. It was impossible to think this way in Bahrain.”
Looking back, it looks like Alonso made the right choice by deciding at the end of the 2022 season to end his journey with Alpine and head to Aston Martin following Sebastian Vettel’s retirement. The Enstone-based team has not had a good season so far, struggling on some weekends to even be in top 10 and sitting a lowly P6 in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Obviously you never know that. It would be nice to have a crystal ball before you make a decision in switching teams and know the future. But at the end I’m happy where I am, there is a project here into the future. I’m very proud.”
