Veteran champion Fernando Alonso continues to show strong performances in Formula 1 even at the age of 41. The Spaniard would even go so far as to make the 2022 season with Alpine his best after the 2012 season, when he narrowly lost in the last in an inferior Ferrari World Championship race against Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.
When asked how much he is enjoying the current year and how he would assess his own performance, he says: “I’m definitely enjoying it. We would like to fight for the championship or podiums, but we don’t have that opportunity yet. But yeah, I’m happy with the performance this year.”
“We lost a good 40 to 50 points at the beginning of the year due to reliability problems. And with these points, the situation in the championship would be completely different, even with McLaren fighting for the constructors’ championship,” said Alonso.
“So I’m happy and proud of the achievement and I think along with 2012 those were probably my two best seasons, even better than the championship years because we had a dominant car in those years. So 2012, 2022 and next year will be 2032!”
This season, the Spaniard will break Kimi Raikkonen’s record for most Grand Prix starts in Formula 1. As Alonso has also signed a long-term contract with Aston Martin, he should also be the first driver to surpass 400 race starts. He is currently at 348 races, still leader Raikkonen at 349.