- Who is Fernando Alonso?
For new fans of the sport, Fernando Alonso is a two-time World Champion who began his Formula 1 career for Minardi at the age of 20 in 2001. He raced for Renault (2003-2006;2008-2009), McLaren (2007; 2015-2018) and Ferrari (2010-2014), too.
His last year in Formula 1 was at McLaren in 2018. After a poor year and a lot of difficulties between Alonso and the team, his contract was not renewed for 2020.
Even in his F1 career, Alonso took part in other motorsports such as the 24hs of Daytona (2017-present), the Indianapolis 500 (2017;2019) and the Dark Rally, when he was already outside the F1.
His Comeback
In 2021, Alonso signed a two-year deal with the Alpine F1 Team (Renault rebranded) to race with teammate Esteban Ocon.
A lot of fans are expecting this return, but opinions are split on how good Alonso is going to be this year. Some fear that what happened at McLaren will repeat itself, others assume that Alonso can be one of the names battling for the title with a few wins.
Some changes in Alpine could make this dream happen faster than we expected; at the beginning of the year, ex-Suzuki MotoGP chief Davide Brivio was named as the new race director. For unfamiliar people, Brivio is one of the key reasons that Yamaha, and now Suzuki, has had such achievements and positive results (even making Joan Mir World Champion in 2020).
This move was a shock to the fans, who only learned when Cyril revealed that he would be leaving Renault all together, including as F1 team boss.
Another great point is the car; after last year with Renault finishing fifth, two wins for Daniel Ricciardo and one for Esteban Ocon, and joining the experience of two-time World Champion and Brivio together, we can only expect better results, maybe Alpine fighting for fourth or third place in the Constructors’.
Unfortunately, we still have to wait to see if Fernando Alonso gets back in the race; He was hospitalized earlier in February after a bike accident in Switzerland, in which he broke his jaw after colliding with a car. Alpine also informed in a statement that “(…) Fernando Alonso will not be present for the media Q&A on this occasion”, instead they will publish a Q&A with Alonso for media use and that he will be available to media in Bahrain for official pre-season testing.
Written and supplied by Ines Martins PLN
