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In a deeply personal confession, Fernando Alonso spoke about everything he has sacrificed in his life to become a Formula 1 champion, revealed that he did not choose to become a racing driver himself, and (on the occasion of the Verstappen-FIA case) expressed his his view of the role a guide should have as a role model.
2025 will mark 20 years since Fernando Alonso won his first Formula 1 championship with Renault F1 in 2005, having burst onto the center stage of world motorsport as a prodigious talent directly challenging Michael Schumacher’s reign.
Two decades on, Alonso hasn’t had the championship haul he deserved due to the unfortunate timing of his transfers – but at 43, he looks fit and determined to claim his third title in the next three years to leave the center stage. in the same stormy way he stormed into it before he was even 20 years old in 2001.
“I didn’t choose to be a driver. It was my father (who chose it), I have to admit.” said the Spaniard speaking at the Aston Martin F1 sponsor event in India, following the Singapore GP.
“I raced in my first Kart race at the age of 3, so you can imagine that I didn’t choose to be a racing driver. My father was very happy that day, my mother less so.
But then you start to enjoy what you do, develop some skills at an early age, and if you do well more opportunities arise. You bring the results, you win, you go up in the categories and finally you reach the F1.
When I was eight, nine, ten years old I remember that on the weekends I ran to the races but on the weekdays I was at school and playing football, I was a goalkeeper. I remember enjoying football more than Kart racing.
But I couldn’t tell my father. And then, in football there were hundreds, thousands of athletes.At Formula 1 there are only 20. So this was more attractive, more exclusive!
All kidding aside, though, I know I’ve missed a lot in life, I know that. I didn’t have the normal time I should have at school, I lost a lot of time, I was competing in Italy and in many different countries.
The next few weeks I was taking exams at school and I was struggling a bit. At the age of 19 I became her driver Formula 1. The first time I went to a disco I was 29. So I missed a lot of things.But I was happy with my life, and still am.
I’m still missing some things. I don’t have children. This is something I want, as a personal goal, for the next few years, not too late I hope. And there’s a lot that didn’t go the way I planned when I was 15 or 16, probably imagining a different life then.”, added the Spaniard.
Her drivers F1 as standards
Fernando was asked, meanwhile, about the dispute that began at the Singapore GP between Max Verstappen and the FIA over the use of indecent language by the Dutchman – who was given a community service sentence by the Federation for using the f* word ** at the official press conference before the match.
Fernando Alonso on the sidelines of the 2024 Austrian GP
ZAK MAUGER / ASTON MARTIN F1 MEDIA
In response, Alonso spoke about his views on the role model an F1 champion should play: “We have a huge responsibility because we are role models for many people. So we have to behave as we should.
You have to be ready to act as a role model even when you don’t want to. When you want to say something that is not right, you have to show restraint.
When one day you don’t want to train, or you don’t feel like preparing for the next race, you have to do it. Because you have a responsibility towards your supporters and the people who believe in you.
I know many people around the world who tell me ‘you are my inspiration, you never give up, you are a fighter’. These remind you that there are many people watching you, watching the way you approach things.
So when you’re a driver and you’re in the limelight, you have to behave properly. The fans give you a lot of love, a lot of motivation, but also a huge responsibility to do what they expect from you”concluded Fernando Alonso.
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