Why would Aston Martin invest in a 41-year-old driver who hadn’t won a season in ten years and was the last world champion before Lewis Hamilton’s Grand Prix debut?
But with Fernando Alonso continuing to compete at such a high level in Formula 1, the real question is ‘why not?’ It will be.
Alonso’s reputation as one of the best drivers in the field has had as much influence on both Alonso himself and his fans as his true talent. But looking at Alonso’s 2022 results on paper, it can be hard to say why he deserves such a high rating – especially above his team-mate. However, Alonso’s second and final year as an Alpine driver was one of his trademark lamentations of bad luck.
It wasn’t the strongest opening of the season for Alonso. Heading into Bahrain, Red Bull’s retirement allowed him to take no points as he was unable to match Ocon’s race pace, benefiting from Alpine’s first set of improvements before his team-mate did.
At Jeddah, Ocon qualified less than tenth and fought hard to keep Alonso behind him in the opening laps of the race. After finally clearing his teammate, Alonso was hit by his first car crash of the season, forcing the Alpine to retire after overheating.
In Melbourne, Alonso was just as quick. In the best of five sessions since the second practice, he breezed into Q3 before setting the purple mid-sector on the first flying lap of the final phase. He then failed to brake for lap 11 with hydraulic failure, ending the session in a gravel trap and leaving him tenth on the grid. His ambitious strategy on hard tires was hit hard early in the race, with the safety car preventing his recovery and forcing him to drop down to 17th place for the second time.
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Alonso was comfortably quicker than Ocon at Imola but dropped from fifth on the sprint grid to ninth for the Grand Prix. At the start of the Grand Prix, he was hit by Mick Schumacher at the first chicane, severely injuring his car and forcing Alpine to retire.
But after three weekends of bad luck, he was fully responsible for losing the points in Miami. After missing Q3, he found himself four places off the line, passing Hamilton on the way. After more than 20 laps stuck behind Pierre Gasly, Alonso got impatient and recklessly lunged on the first lap, hitting Alfatauri and earning a five-second penalty. Then, after a safety car restart late in the race, Alonso twice cut the chicane at the back of the circuit in a subtle bid to get out of the DRS range of the chasing cars. He was investigated and penalized for one of these incidents, which resulted in him being demoted after the race.
At home in Barcelona, Alonso suffered a season-long penalty by becoming the first driver to hit a power unit grid penalty – just six rounds in 22 seasons. Despite starting from the back of the grid, he did a commendable job in the race to finish in ninth place, although he was a bit late at his final pit stop. In Monaco, Alonso crashed out of Q3 but almost escaped unnoticed as all eyes were on Mele on the track. In the race he showed his disdain for the meeting by deliberately retreating after the restart to effectively hold half the field at will. After finishing ‘best of the rest’ in seventh place, he told his team-mate he was trying to create a defense to avoid a penalty, but failed to do so.
Alonso’s on-track streak was on display again in Baku, when he made a questionable mistake in qualifying by following a red flag to ensure the cars behind him were sent back by yellow flags. He led the two McLarens and his teammate home and finished seventh in the race.
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As F1 rolled into Montreal, Alonso turned back the clock, waving his way to the front row of the grid with a stunning qualifying effort in the wet, finishing second in all three stages. It was inevitable that the fastest Ferrari of the race, Carlos Sainz Jr., would pass, but Alonso was cursing his bad luck when he started the race with an ERS failure on lap 20. Despite losing straight-line speed, he fought hard to challenge himself in the points – perhaps too hard, as his apparent weave to keep Valtteri Bottas behind him cost him two places after the checkered flag. Again, he drove the weekend better but came away with fewer points than Ocon.
In another wet qualifying session at Silverstone, Alonso was several rows ahead of Ocon on the grid. He took advantage of a late safety car to jump ahead of Norris on the final lap, earning him ‘best of the rest’ honors in fifth place. But there was more frustration in Austria when an electronics failure occurred before the Esprex race. However, he battled back through the field to win an extra pit stop due to a flat tire and pass Bottas on the final lap to claim the final points to salvage some prize money from an aggravating weekend.
When things outside of his control weren’t going astray, Alonso was constantly beating Ocon. But his team-mate did not offer him any concessions on the road, which led to a second major clash between them in the opening round of Hungary. Alonso was angered by his team-mate on the track that he had never been seen as Ocon, but retaliated by announcing he would be leaving the team at the end of the 2023 season.
Alonso had an unusually good luck at Spey, surviving contact with Hamilton on the opening lap and inheriting fifth after Ferrari burned their fastest lap late on. He was the best of the rest at Zandvoort to take sixth, but car problems began to strike again. He retired at Monza with a water pump failure and another power unit problem forced him out of the Singapore Grand Prix, finishing sixth.
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His performance at the Circuit of the Americas was one of his best efforts for the championship. Without the updated floor giving his team-mate and another power unit grid penalty, Alonso comfortably finished 14th in Q3 at Ocon and was as high as seventh before the safety car was deployed. On the restart, his forward teammate made the mistake of not releasing ‘Stroll space’ while in the skid and was sent flying into the air and into the wall. Despite his fears, Alonso went into the pits for repairs, took the flag and recovered to seventh place before crashing out of the right wing mirror and ultimately crashing out of the race. (For a while this list seemed to cost him the result, though he eventually avoided the penalty.)
In Mexico, he faced his retirement just a few laps from the last time. Then his rivalry with Ocon came to a head at Interlagos when the pair collided twice in the opening lap of the sprint race. Alonso may have been disappointed by the lack of space offered to exit Desida do Lago, but it was his fault for running into Ocon on the pit straight. After a strong speech from his soon-to-be former team, Alonso climbed from 18th on the grid to a solid fifth place and 10 crucial points in his battle with McLaren in the Alpine Constructors Championship.
It was fitting that Alonso’s final race at Alpine in Abu Dhabi ended with a car failure – the fifth time he has been forced out of the race early through his own fault. In addition to his other off-season troubles, he could be forgiven for working harder than most to put 2022 behind him and look forward to another fresh start at Aston Martin.
Although his final placings didn’t show, Alonso was one of the best drivers of the season. Aston Martin may have lost their most admired four-time world champion from their team, but based on Alonso’s performances this season, they should have a good feeling about who will replace him next season.
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