Fernando Alonso Is Having F1's Greatest Old-Guy Season
Can he keep it rolling?
Look, I can’t tell you whether Fernando Alonso is dating Taylor Swift, as per the (seemingly unsubstantiated) rumors that have swirled around in the media recently. But I can tell you that Alonso might well be the most gifted driver Formula 1 has ever produced — and he is building one of his strongest cases for that yet this year.
Three seasons ago, Alonso wasn’t even in Formula 1 at all. Instead, he was off driving endurance cars, rally racing and trying to win the Indy 500. Before that, the two-time World Champion’s storied F1 career was hitting a skid after a move from Ferrari to McLaren in 2015; his average finish was in double-digits each season he was with that team, casting doubt upon his future in the sport.
But following a two-year return from sabbatical with Alpine — which certainly had its own ups and downs — Alonso is relishing a move to Aston Martin for 2023. In four races so far, Alonso has nabbed four Top-5 finishes and three podiums, landing himself third in the early standings behind only Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. And amazingly, Alonso’s current average finish of 3.3 is tied for the best of his entire career, every bit as good as when he won titles in 2005 (3.3) and 2006 (3.6).
It seems improbable that Alonso will keep driving quite this well all season long, even though he and teammate Lance Stroll have both been running near the front of the field most weeks (and Alonso has a well-documented history of driving circles around his teammates). But if the 41-year-old Alonso maintains even a semblance of this early-season pace, he would shatter the previous records for best F1 seasons by an older driver.
Since 1973, no driver in his forties has recorded an average finish better than 9.2 in any number of races (that was done by Jacques Laffite, in nine races at age 42 in 1986), and none have finished better than 10.1 on average in a season with 10 or more races (Michael Schumacher, at age 41 in 2010). Alonso is blowing away both of those marks right now.
Alonso’s fountain of youth probably won’t be enough to carry a bid for his third championship; Verstappen is a massive favorite in the betting odds (no real surprise there). But he’s currently sitting with +2800 title odds at FanDuel — the same as his old teammate/rival/fellow elder-statesman Lewis Hamilton, which would have been shocking to anyone last year, much less several seasons ago. That’s the thing with all-time talent like Alonso possesses, though: It can always re-emerge when you least expect it.
Filed under: Formula 1