As Fernando Alonso’s manager, Flavio Briatore perhaps has the easiest job in the paddock. Whilst the Spaniard has an uncanny habit of zigging whilst the balance of performance zags, Fernando is also his own PR agent. Scarcely a qualifying session goes by without a somewhat breathless Alonso radioing-in to engineer Mark Temple to proclaim that he “can do no more than this” and that “we should be P1”. Even if the overlay data said otherwise, it would take a brave engineer to disagree with Alonso.
It is easy to denigrate these remarks as the self-aggrandizing musings of a driver more politically astute than necessary, however for anyone who has paid even the most casual attention to Alonso’s performances in 2017, it is plain to see that a level of self-congratulations is in order. Fernando has been phenomenal. The incredible lap he drove to qualify his McLaren in seventh place in Barcelona (link to onboard) is a microcosm of his entire season: ferocious, animalistic and driven with such aggression that it looks like Alonso might be gritting his teeth.
Martin’s suggestion that it looks like he is “fighting an octopus in the cockpit” has the makings of a classic Brundle-ism, and versus the silky smooth Jenson Button or the sterile cognizance of Vettel, it is refreshing that Alonso drives with the intensity of a Viking berserker.
There was a time when the paddock started to whisper that he had lost his motivation, and certainly, in the latter half of such a barren 2014 (a famine that would precipitate his exit from Ferrari) followed by an even bleaker 2015, some of the verve and electricity had understandably evaporated. Spontaneously slapping-down Johnny Herbert’s rather dense suggestion that he should retire live on air was surely the highlight of an otherwise hellish 2015 season.
For 2016, Alonso’s tenacity would see a partial revival, and all of a sudden Button was unable to keep pace with the Spaniard, but for 2017, with his adrenaline reserves brimming and visibly revelling in the faster, grippier 2017 machines, Alonso has looked every bit the driver of his heydey. Indeed, he is perhaps a more formidable qualifier than he ever has been. Moreover, you could argue Fernando has been the standout performer of 2017.
In recent races especially, Alonso’s 2017 resurgence has been aided by the significant progress the McLaren chassis has made. Under the stewardship of Peter Prodromou – the former stalwart of Adrian Newey’s Red Bull aerodynamic powerhouse – McLaren’s chassis design has been gaining momentum under the veil of Honda’s power unit pandemonium.
Paddock whispers of GPS data insights have been lauding the McLaren chassis throughout its disastrous Honda partnership, but it has only been in recent races, where a developmental breakthrough similar to that which has made the Red Bull a winning car, where those whispers have been borne out on-track.
A lap in Q1 in Mexico to go less than two-tenths slower than Hamilton’s top time, and an unexpectedly competitive weekend at the highly power sensitive Interlagos circuit (so power sensitive that it was enough to leave the comfortable victor in Mexico a frustratingly distant fifth) are promising signals ahead of a season where McLaren will be on horsepower parity with Red Bull.
Whilst there are no guarantees, the paddock consensus is that the combined total of Renault power, the efforts of Prodromou’s team and those of a certain ultra-competitive Spaniard will put McLaren into contention for podiums, and at a stretch, even victories in 2018.
If this does prove the case, no longer veiled behind the nobility of being a great driver in an unworthy car, 2018 could prove a litmus test of Alonso’s performances, a long overdue marker of how the eminent double-champion compares to the current prodigious batch of frontrunners. On determination alone, Fernando is at least the equal of Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen, and in terms of talent, there is nothing about his 17 seasons in F1 that isn’t befitting of a generational star.
And yet, in terms of speed, even Alonso has the potential to be humbled by the phenomenal quality and flair of Hamilton’s performances since the summer break. A number of Lewis’ qualifying laps, most especially his astonishing record-equaling pole lap at Spa (link to onboard), verged on perfection.
The completeness of the newly-crowned champion; in the wet, in qualifying, in wheel-to-wheel combat and across a race distance; is surely an imposing reference point for any of his contemporaries. Similarly, Max Verstappen’s trajectory, especially now that he has grown a taste for winning, is surely an intimidating prospect for any driver who gets between the ravenous young Dutchman and the checkered flag.
But you sense that this is immaterial to a thoroughbred competitor like Alonso; his belief in his abilities have always remained blindly vehement. Having weathered the storm of being the British tabloid’s pantomime villain in 2007, he is now bolstered by an arguably unmatched reservoir of respect from within the paddock and among the most seasoned fans. There is a flavour of an underdog about the way Alonso’s feats behind the wheel have predominantly been against the odds and in spite of unfancied machinery.
But why should a competitor of Alonso’s calibre always have the odds stacked against him? Whilst McLaren are likely to be more competitive in 2018, versus the big three teams to be anything more than onlookers in the first year of a new technical partnership is asking a lot, and even scoring occasional podiums is still likely to require Herculean drives from Alonso.
For a driver in the autumn of his career, is it not a shame that he may never sit in a winning car again? And whilst a driver like Kimi Raikkonen continues to squander his Ferrari, and with Valtteri Bottas showing no sign of being able to consistently match Hamilton, it is almost impossible to quell thoughts of what the Spaniard could be achieving in topline machinery.
There are of course good reasons why Alonso won’t be driving a Mercedes or a Ferrari anytime soon: in addition to former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s doctrinal reluctance to put “two roosters in the same hen house”, Fernando is an eye-wateringly expensive firebrand with an unfortunate legacy of internally destabilizing teams.
Versus younger pups like Verstappen, Sainz and Ocon, Alonso is an investment that would make no financial or structural sense. In any other series in the world, a driver of his quality would not be left to pasture in the midfield (he even managed to wrangle a seat with Michael Andretti’s stalwart IndyCar powerhouse for his Indy 500 cameo), but it is because of F1’s rigorous rationality that Fernando is resigned to the midfield.
And Alonso knows this. The cerebral Spaniard knows that he may never reach the top step of an F1 podium again before the circling vulture of McLaren protege Lando Norris closes in. Ultimately, in an attempt to apply some lateral thinking to his desired final destination as a driver, he has already sounded-out a possible mouth-watering pursuit of the ‘Triple Crown’ as the likely next chapter of his career.
The thirty laps he led during his phenomenal showing at last year’s Indy 500 and a test with the Toyota LMP1 squad suggests that Fernando could make that dream a reality. Elsewhere, should the stars align and the combination of Renault power and McLaren chassis development produce a fast car for 2018, being at least closer to the ultimate pace should hopefully provide some renewed motivation for F1’s perpetually hamstrung political animal.
