The heat of the midday sun glazed over the Styrian mountains like sugary gloop on a ring doughnut in the Formula 1 paddock; the only moisture in proximity was the beads of sweat collecting on the forehead of every journalist gathered in the Aston Martin hospitality suite.
Sat before them, sunglasses firmly affixed to his face, Fernando Alonso gave perhaps one of his most impassioned performances outside of a racing car in some time. These days, Alonso has been appearing laid back, jovial and accepting of the predicament he finds himself in. At 44 years of age, he is seeming very much a man content with where he is in terms of his life and career.
But not on Thursday afternoon’s obligatory media duties in Austria.
Not only did he fiercely defend his team’s current on-track situation in 2026, as it faces ongoing problems to rectify at the back of the grid, but he also reeled off some impromptu words of wisdom about himself. Alonso is not a man of extreme arrogance, but not false modesty. He knows how good he was, and how good he is.
Fernando Alonso: “I have nothing to prove”
Aston Martin’s trackside chief Mike Krack joked that he hoped Alonso would not retire as he is “too fast,” and Alonso retorted to media, including Motorsport Monday, with all due respect: “I don’t need Mike to tell me that I’m fast. “I feel it every lap that I do on track. And I’ve been feeling it always.”
Many felt his F1 career was over when he vacated the sport in 2019, but returned in 2021, and showed any doubters that he, despite his veteran status, was nowhere near done yet. That was confirmed also in his first year at Aston Martin, when he maximised the AMR23 by taking eight podiums.
Max Verstappen has notoriously sought enjoyment from sportscar racing over the last year or so and Alonso, of course, took a Le Mans 24 Hours victory in both 2018 and 2019, as well as his unsuccessful attempts at winning the Indy 500. There is no doubt that he wants to be the first racing driver since Graham Hill to win the Triple Crown of motorsport, and whilst he is obviously and understandably irked by Aston Martin’s current plight, he is comfortable in himself from a legacy point of view.
“As I said many times, I have nothing to prove in Formula 1,” he said. “I won two World Championships and I’ve been fighting for six or seven World Championships with cars that were not supposed to be fighting for World Championships. So my way in Formula 1 and my chapter in Formula 1 is a lot better than what I ever imagined when I was in go karts and I was in Oviedo with my family. So this is a bonus, this is a gift that I’m enjoying right now. Being in the top series at this age and I’m feeling competitive and enjoying what I’m doing.
“But I just don’t want to be one of the fast guys in Formula 1. I don’t want to be just a World Champion in Formula 1. As I said, when I took my sabbatical years, I wanted to be the most complete driver in the world. That’s why I attempt some of the biggest challenges out in motorsport with endurance racing, with Daytona, with Dakar, with Le Mans, with Indy 500.
“Because I think in the modern era, to be fast in all the different series in the world of motorsport is extremely difficult because all of them require a different technique and you need to adapt yourself very fast. And probably that has been my strength all my life since go kart.
“And when I go to the dunes, or I go to the oval, or I go to the 24 hours at night or in the day, I know and I feel and I felt all my life that I can adapt quicker. So part of my legacy in motorsport is to do things that other people cannot do.”
Fernando Alonso planning for the future?
It seems that Alonso resents being either written off or written about in a way he deems to be incorrect, and he has reached a level, as per his self-spoken compendium of success, that he feel that he is in a place of contentment, but with a totally passionate approach to his own self-described status.
“I will keep racing because I’m feeling fast and I feel motivated and I love what I do,” he said.
“And I will not stop now, you know, because I don’t feel uncompetitive or I don’t feel that I enjoy racing. If I race in Formula 1 or not, that’s a different story.
“I need to enjoy the category. I need to enjoy the feeling of driving these power units and these regulations and this kind of thing. There are many factors to put in place. And there are many options to race in the world of motorsport.”
Whilst he also talked about his commitment to Aston Martin, there is a vague sense of contradiction in Alonso’s words. If one was to guess, there is absolute truth in the former, but the latter is part of his long-term plans.
Alonso, to me, seems the kind of racer that would race in his wheelchair in the Old Folks Home of F1 Legends. When his F1 journey is done [which will doubtlessly be on his own terms], he will plonk himself in something else that has four wheels and strike fear into those who will line up on the grid with him.
Give him something with a good engine, and being the most complete driver in the world is a label that could attach itself to him indefinitely.
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