F1 casualty and third championship goal for Fernando Alonso

The Spaniard is aiming to achieve with surprise Aston Martin F1 2023 team what he failed to do with Ferrari and McLaren for a decade and a half after leaving Renault as a two-time world champion in 2006.

With the performance of the Aston Martin AMR23 at the Bahrain GP opening the curtain on the 2023 championship, that goal suddenly became a lot more likely to be achieved.

The AMR23 was Shakir’s second most competitive car in the race and Alonso recently said it has a lot of room for improvement as it’s 95% new – so there are many aspects that can be understood and developed to make it faster.

He was recently asked by French broadcaster Canal Plus if his goal for this year was his 100th career podium – after his 99th in Bahrain – or his 33rd F1 win. But the Spaniard replied: “100th level? 33rd victory? I’m going to the World Cup“.

“El Nano”, the child prodigy who made a spectacular debut in 2001 with the worst car in the field, Minardi, is 41 years old today. At a time when priorities are changing for F1 drivers too, when physical fitness isn’t what it used to be, and when even talent of this magnitude requires far more and perhaps more difficult sacrifices to maintain the to meet the requirements of F1.

Alonso said of these casualties: “My motivation is always to race. Even when I retired from Formula 1 in 2018, I couldn’t take it and sat in a different car every weekend: in the endurance championship [WEC]in Dakar, in Indianapolis, whatever.”

“When I came back to Formula 1, I decided without a doubt that I had to sacrifice other things in life and dedicate another time to my passion, for three or five or seven years in the sport. There are no secrets, you dedicate your life to your passion and you know your body better, so you train better, you eat better and that’s how you extend your career,” he added.

Fernando Alonso will be 42 next July. He’s not the only champion to have continued at that age in recent years. Kimi Raikkonen retired at 42 and Michael Schumacher at 43. Due to uncompetitive cars, neither achieved a championship at 40.

Alonso is proving he can, his physical endurance is unshakable and he says that with the wealth of experience from the 356 GPs he’s started he’s now better than ever: “I feel privileged to still be here, Better than ever before. At my age, I’m not worried. I will be the first to feel it when I lose something, when I miss something while driving, when I start to travel my motivation or wake up in the morning for a workout.

“So far I only see advantages because I know the car, I know the tires and some of the tracks we will be racing this year I have driven in the past. So I don’t see any downsides,” concluded the Spaniard.