Fernando Alonso was part of many thrilling fights for the F1 world championship in his career, most notably the tense ending to the 2012 season, in a dramatic, rain-affected Brazilian GP, when his main rival was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. The Spaniard has plenty of experience on the matter, and gave his verdict on the 2021 championship between Hamilton and Verstappen:

“It will depend on the package a little bit; Mercedes lately have been more performing and they’ve won a couple of races now, but Max is driving – in my opinion – one step ahead of all of us. We saw the [qualifying] lap in Jeddah, until he touched the wall at the last corner, that lap was coming from Max, not the Red Bull.”

Alonso believes that Mercedes has enjoyed a car performance advantage of late, saying the Brackley squad deserve to win the constructors’ glory, but he believes that the drivers’ crown should go to Verstappen, as he is driving his Red Bull RB16B “to another level”, and sheds light on his “interesting” experience of watching such a hard-fought championship battle from the outside:

“In a way, that’s my opinion: Mercedes deserve the constructors’ championship because the car is superior and Max, maybe overall in the year, was driving one step ahead of everyone.”

“It’s not that I support Max. It’s that he deserves it in my opinion. Everyone has a different opinion, but he is driving that Red Bull to another level. I think [they don’t need] advice because they are very well prepared, they are committed, they are fast, they are professional, no mistakes for both of them driving at the limit. I think it is very interesting to watch from the outside, that’s good.”

“What is happening at the front, as a motorsport fan you are following and you are aware of the stress... and it’s nice to watch from the outside.

“But whoever wins, it doesn’t change too much your approach or your weekend, as I said, when someone asks, I can have an opinion and everyone has a different one – but I’m not supporting anyone.”

But the Spaniard isn’t getting too distracted watching the fight at front, as he has his own fight to worry about in the season finale, with his Alpine team looking to fend off the challenge from AlphaTauri in their fight for 5th place in the constructors’ championship. Going into the Abu Dhabi GP, Alpine holds a 29-point lead over the Faenza squad.

“I’m not in the fight so I’m supporting my team; we are fighting for fifth in the constructors’, we have a good advantage now over Pierre [Gasly] and Yuki [Tsunoda] and AlphaTauri but you never know what could happen in a race so you need to be focused and deliver a good performance on Sunday.”, he completed.

It's time for our final practice session of the year! 🙌

And, @alo_oficial and @OconEsteban have a new addition to their @AlpineF1Team cars 😉#F1 🇦🇪 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/bDDWkKU1jv

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 10, 2021