Madrid (EFE).- The Spanish Fernando Alonso lives a second youth at the age of 41. The Asturian double world champion, the oldest driver on the grid, finished third, in Bahrain, the first Formula One World Grand Prix. In his first race with his new team, Aston Martin. He signed the podium of him 99, a year and almost four months after the previous one; he encouraged the queen category and launched an invitation to dream.
Alonso, who made his debut in F1, aboard a Minardi, at an Australian Grand Prix and exactly 22 years ago – those who celebrated his birthday last Saturday – is a few days away from twenty days away from his first podium. With which at that time he broke another precocity record, one day after becoming the youngest to sign a ‘pole’. In Sepang, Malaysia. Where he would finish third, behind the Finn Kimi Raikkonen and the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.
Between that drawer and the one on Sunday, when the Dutchman Max Verstappen took his first step towards a third title in a row by winning in Sakhir leading with his partner, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, a new Red Bull ‘double’, there are barely three weeks left so that exactly 20 years are fulfilled.
Twenty years in which Alonso -absent two of them, in which he won, among other things, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and, on two occasions, the 24 Hours of Le Mans- has written the history of a sport with capital letters which is, at the same time, a great show and a gigantic business. Which are much more attractive when a car with guarantees is placed in Fernando’s hands.
Aston Martin demonstrated on Sunday at the desert circuit surrounding Manama, the capital of Bahrain (where Alonso scored three of his 32 F1 victories: in 2005 and 2006, the years of his two titles, with Renault; and in 2010, in his first race with Ferrari) which is the car that has advanced the most between campaigns. Seventh last year, on Sunday he was second on the grid, dominated again by Red Bull, which defends both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.
Aston Martín and its powerful economic investment
With a powerful economic investment behind it and, apart from the brilliant Asturian pilot, with stellar signings such as those of the British engineers Dan Fallows, who ‘grew up’ alongside his compatriot Adrian Newey, ‘guru’ of aerodynamics and father of the greats Red Bull successes (four ‘doublets’ in a row between 2010 and 2013) – and the Frenchman Eric Blandin, assistant technical director to the former, Aston Martin has taken an immense qualitative leap. With room for improvement, too.
The championship is long, in fact it is the longest in history. It will conclude on the last weekend of November in Abu Dhabi after 23 races, including the Spanish Grand Prix -on June 4- and the Mexican Grand Prix -on October 29-. And many things can happen, still. But, for now, the team led by the Luxembourger Mike Krack occupies second place in the Constructors’ World Championship, behind Red Bull, which last year ended the best streak in history; that of Mercedes, with eight titles in a row.
Alonso, who also won his first race almost twenty years ago (the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, with Renault) and who signed the thirty-second and so far last almost ten years ago (in the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, at the Barcelona circuit of Montmeló and for Ferrari), impressed in the pre-season tests, two weeks ago and in the same setting.
The brilliant Asturian pilot set the fastest time in Friday’s practice sessions; he led the last trial before finishing fifth in Saturday’s qualifying; and he once again showed that no one beats him by optimizing resources by finishing third in the first race of the year. A test that his new teammate, the Canadian Lance Stroll -son of Lawrence, the billionaire owner of the Silverstone team-, absent due to injury during the shortest preseason in history, finished sixth.
Alonso shone again in the Bahraini night. He stayed within one hundred and climbed to his third podium in the last eight years. The previous one had been on November 21, 2021, when the then debutant Qatar Grand Prix finished third: won by Englishman Lewis Hamilton -fifth in Bahrain- ahead of Verstappen: in the penultimate round of a World Cup in which the young Dutch star (25 years old) would end up dethroning the seven-time world champion in the last lap of the last race.
The most important thing, the stopwatch, not the age
Fernando once again confirmed what was stated in an interview with EFE that took place in Austria the year of his return to Formula One: that in motorsport “the most important thing is not age, but the stopwatch”. Time, never better said, has proved him right again. And only after congratulating all of his team and his new teammate -who, with damaged wrists and half a limp, due to the bike accident he suffered two weeks ago finished sixth-, he was exultant. Aware that he can return to the place that, without a doubt, he deserves.
Never, not even two seasons ago in the one he had achieved in Lusail (Qatar), had a podium caused such a positive reaction among the rivals of one of the great stars in the entire history of Spanish sport; in a highly competitive and egocentric way. Stroll and Alonso hugged each other as soon as they got out of their cars; before the Oviedo professor launched himself, in the ‘pit lane’ area, on the mechanics of his team. And one of the first to congratulate him, after “a tough but beautiful battle”, was his compatriot and friend Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), from whom he had just taken third place by passing him in the last few laps, relegating him to the always ungrateful final fourth place.
He did it in an action almost as brilliant as his spectacular overtaking in the tenth of the fifteen curves of Sakhir -in an area almost as impossible as the spaces of the Dutch artist MC Escher- his former antagonist, Hamilton: with 38 years the second oldest grill veteran. The spectacular and eccentric champion from Stevenage was also quick to congratulate him and hug him in the interview area with the televisions.
Verstappen, who once again showed his ‘super-predator’ status by winning with enormous authority, repeated what he had already stated on Saturday: that he was happy for Fernando, that he hoped to continue seeing him in the leading positions and that his return to the top it was “great news for Formula One”.
The Asturian genius experienced moments of euphoria before putting his feet back on the ground. There are 22 races left -the next one in two weekends, in Arabia and on a completely different track- and an infinite number of things can happen, but among all the cars powered by the once overwhelming Mercedes, the best classified in Bahrain was the Alonso’s Aston Martin.
And if the car – “which would have continued driving for another hour, from how well it was going” – works, Alonso, even if he tries to hide it, will shine.
Fernando does not set limits. His followers have a license to dream. EFE
Adrian R. Huber