It was announced with remarkable speed, appropriately, one might say, but fernando Alonso’s move to Aston Martin ticks all the boxes.
An F1 engine cannot be indecisive, it has long been said. One of his contemporaries once told me that Nigel Mansell never spent more than a few seconds browsing a restaurant menu, as he was so quick to decide. It simply goes with the employment territory.
And it turns out the same goes for Alonso’s sudden change. Just five days before news of his departure from Alpine became official, it turns out to us that Sebastian Vettel hadn’t even announced to Aston Martin that he would be retiring.
However, from Wednesday to Monday morning, Lawrence Stroll has finished a new wife along with his son Lance in the team’s driver team for 2023.
Getting married in a hurry, repenting in free time, says the old adage. But it doesn’t sound like one of those catchy game display arrangements where other people pretend to be in love for an hour or two under the spotlight on TV.
Instead, it seems like the right decision. Not just for Alonso and Aston, but for the entire F1 pit lane.
Alonso and Stroll said in the press release that they knew each other “for many years. “
But in addition to the private adjustment, it is also an ideal link at a professional level.
– Formula 1 (@F1) August 1, 2022
Stroll senior has made no secret of his big plans for Aston Martin. He needs them to be world championship contenders in the coming years, and progress so far would possibly have been slower than he would have liked. It’s moments from the back of this constructors’ championship standings of the season.
Stroll junior, on the other hand, does not propel the team to titles of pikes. He is talented, fast in his day and has decent racing art, as they point out through a pole position and 3 podiums.
However, it is inconsistent and only lacks that touch of star quality required to make a difference at the level.
So if Aston Martin wants to take the step to actually combine it with Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, it wants a leader. A leader like Alonso.
They were hoping it would be Vettel, obviously for more than two years that he will have been with the team because they were looking for him to stay longer.
The challenge that, despite his immense fortune and experience, the former four-time world champion seemed to have lost much of the hunger of his youth. He brought valuable knowledge and experience, but what about the public’s preference?To enjoy more glory days? Their environmental and social crusade would possibly also have been a distraction.
Alonso, on the other hand, is still desperate to win. He is still a true cyclist: even at 41, he has an appetite for good fortune even more potent than that of his rivals who are part of his age. And if anything, given the effects since joining them in 2021, Alpine has failed to adapt to that.
As a team without the blue-blooded history and pedigree of, say, Ferrari, Aston Martin wants to progress and wants Alonso’s stature to get them there.
A new factory wanted and brilliant and the recruitment of high-level workers into other groups will have to be accompanied by a driving force of the same kind, and Alonso is that man.
They may have only opted for Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon or Mick Schumacher, but none of this trio has the same presence.
So what does this mean in other parts of the network?Well, for Alpine, it’s not the end of the world. Far from it, as it solves a dilemma for them: Esteban Ocon becomes their No. 1, with Oscar Piastri in a position to insert himself on his side. They no longer want to worry about finding an opportunity for their prodigious talent as an Australian recruit.
Even for Williams, who had been linked to Piastri’s loan, it means they can take their time, rather than rushing to make a decision, to locate someone to enroll Albon, if, as expected, they dispense with Nicholas Latifi’s premises.
Of course, Alonso is in the winter of his F1 career. He will most likely set all sorts of experience/durability records in his time at Aston Martin, even if it only lasts two years.
In the meantime, however, he has the possibility to get them where they need to be, while potentially satisfying his own cravings for more days in the sun like the ones he enjoyed so much in his relative youth.
And when he finally retires, an apparent successor could be in place.
A wedding made in paradise? This can stretch you. But it’s a whirlwind romance that happens to have each and every chance of working.
Fernando Alonso has signed a multi-year contract for Aston Martin to Sebastian Vettel.