F1 | Alonso refutes the claim that he is now happier in Formula 1 compared to before
Fernando Alonso has rejected the idea that he is now much happier at Alpine than he was at Ferrari and McLaren. The Spaniard, who turned 40 in July, had a better than expected comeback season with five top-six finishes, as well as a trip to the rostrum after securing a third-place finish in Qatar.
Fernando Alonso has rejected the idea that he is now happier at Alpine than he was at Ferrari and McLaren.
After initially leaving the sport in 2018 to pursue success in sportscar racing and the Dakar rally, Alonso returned to Formula 1 last year with the newly rebranded Alpine team, replacing the McLaren bound Daniel Ricciardo.
Despite a sluggish start to his comeback campaign, the Spaniard showed that he had lost none of his speed during his hiatus from the sport, as he managed to drag his Alpine to five top-six finishes and 15 top-ten finishes, on his way to 10th in the final drivers' standings. However, the highlight of Alonso's comeback season was his first podium in Formula 1 for over seven years after holding off Red Bull's Sergio Perez for the final spot on the rostrum in the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix.
During a media debrief where he was reflecting on his first season back in Formula 1, Alonso rejected the idea that he was now happier at Alpine than he was at McLaren or Ferrari.
"When I joined Ferrari, I had exactly the same questions; I remember perfectly answering questions like 'Why do you feel so happy now? Is it being an Italian team and you are Spanish, it is a better fit, and you feel happy? And I said, 'yes, maybe it's because of that, and we have the same sense of humour, we have the same Latin character – so maybe that's the reason why I'm happy."
"And then I came back to McLaren in 2015 and it was the same comments – 'why you are so happy now? because in Ferrari, you felt a little bit down the last two years and frustrated. And now you seem that even if you are not fighting for the championship, and it was the bad seasons of Honda, etc you are still quite happy off track. So why that change from Fernando?"
Alonso then expanded on this theory, saying that he had been asked about his happiness since 2007 when he was teammates with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.
"So now it's the same comment. From 2007 and fighting with Hamilton in a British team in a British environment, it was the wrong message that people perceive and the people spread about me. From 2007 everyone is surprised how good I feel and how happy I am. So I think I didn't change much."
