Fernando Alonso is “grateful” to be able to drive in Formula 1 again. His comeback in 2021 was “the best way” to prepare for 2022.
Fernando Alonso is satisfied with his Formula 1 comeback in the 2021 season. “Esteban’s victory in Hungary was of course the best moment for us as a team. My podium in Qatar was also a very nice feeling, of course. But overall it was a good year for me – on and off the track,” reports the Alpine driver.
“I enjoyed my time with the team and my comeback. I was very happy,” said the Spaniard, who returned to Formula 1 after a two-year break. With tenth place in the World Cup, he could not uproot any trees. But that wasn’t to be expected in the Alpine and after his long break.
“It was the best way to prepare for 2022,” explains Alonso, for whom 2021 was just a transition season to get used to Formula 1 again. “The biggest challenge was probably the front tires and the philosophy that each team has with the front suspension,” he says.
Always better after a difficult start
The power steering and the “feedback you get on the steering wheel” were his biggest difficulties. “That is of course very different for every team. And the design of the front tires has changed from 2020 to 2021,” he remembers and explains: “That was a challenge for everyone.”
It was a particular difficulty for the drivers who changed teams for the 2021 season, and of course for him too, “because I was out of the sport for two years,” explains Alonso. After a difficult start to the season, however, he has improved with every race, reports the two-time world champion.
This is also confirmed by his results. If he ended up behind his team-mate Esteban Ocon in each of the first five races of the season, he was slightly ahead in the final accounts in the team-internal duel with 11:10. The Spaniard also finished one place and seven points ahead of Ocon in the World Cup at the end of the season.
One last attack on the title in 2022?
But not only he himself got better and better over the course of the year. He believes he was able to help the entire team improve. “Thanks to my experience and working with different teams, I could see some things that we were weak at. We were very strong in other areas,” he explains.
“I think we are in better shape now than we were in Bahrain in March. But there are still some things that we have to fix. The most important thing is whether the car is fast in February,” said Alonso, of 2022 again wants to attack the world title – possibly for the last time in his career.
Even without another title, it is a “great luxury” to have come back to Formula 1 at all. “There is only a very small group of drivers who can drive in Formula 1,” recalls Alonso and explains: “It is not easy to get these opportunities. I am grateful for that.”
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