Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz led praise upon his Formula 1 idol Fernando Alonso as the Aston Martin driver prepares for his 400th Grand Prix in Mexico City.
The veteran Spaniard has had a glittering career, that started all the way back in 2001 with Minardi and has seen him chalk up two World Championships 32 race victories, 102 podiums and 22 pole positions.
Alonso’s longevity, however, is one of his strongest assets and he’s as sharp as ever at the age of 43, contesting his 21st season of F1.
The Aston Martin driver is arguably the reason why Sainz went into F1, rather than following his father’s footsteps into rallying and he was the perfect driver to credit his fellow Spaniard on the career milestone.
“It is crazy to me to think when I was growing up, nine, 10 years old, he was already in F1 and now that I turned 30 myself, he’s still in Formula 1,” Sainz said.
“He’s still here because he wants it and he has so much talent and speed still at his age that he can allow himself to keep choosing about what to do with his future and with his life, which in a competitive field of 19 other very hungry younger drivers, that says a lot from him.
“From my side, I have a very good example at home with my dad, still winning Dakars at 61, 62, so I know what it takes to have at home someone that is still hungry and very motivated about what he does.
“So I can see why Fernando has a very similar approach to things because you can tell they are made of racing. They cannot live without racing.”
Former team-mate credits Alonso’s passion
Ahead of his landmark moment in Mexico City, former Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon paid tribute to Alonso last Thursday during a press conference at the United States GP.
“Fernando breathes racing, eats racing, wakes up racing,” he said. “When he has free time, he just goes go-karting. He just wants to drive and race all the time.
“I’ve talked about it for him, what motivates him. He just says he doesn’t know really what else to do. It’s been his life and he just enjoys racing all the time. He has nothing to prove anymore to anyone.
“He’s one of the best ever, clearly. He’s won in most of the categories that he’s done. I really had a lot of learning when I was racing alongside him on a lot of different topics, inside the track, outside the track, how he raced, how he thinks outside the box. And that’s clearly the things that I remember the most how he’s aware strategy-wise of how things are turning out for him and where he needs to go while he’s racing.
“400 races… I don’t think any drivers anytime soon are going to be reaching that many races ever because he’s still going and he’s going to be still going for many years.”
McLaren’s Zak Brown compares Fernando Alonso to racing greats
Alonso’s F1 career has been plagued by career choices that landed him in uncompetitive cars, especially during his second stint at McLaren.
From 2015 through to 2018, Alonso fell out of love with the sport and started to chase other motorsport pursuits, even going on a two-year hiatus in 2019.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown watched over Alonso as he struggled in F1 but excelled elsewhere and the American was glowing in his praise of the Spaniard.
“Fernando is awesome,” Brown said.
“He’s one of my favourite racing drivers. He’s a proper racing driver. He wants to race anything he can get, and his focus is amazing.
“To have his level of talent being this long in Formula 1 is impressive.
“He is capable of winning Grands Prix and the World Championship in a race-winning championship-calibre race car, and so you’ve got to admire for him to have done Dakar and Le Mans and jump in at the Indy 500.
“He is a throwback to the days where the Mario Andrettis hopped around and the Dan Gurneys.”
READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: Aston Martin still ‘challenging’ despite F1 upgrades
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