The consequences left by the brand new signing of Lewis Hamilton for the team Ferrari starting in 2025, a few days before the start of a new season of Formula 1 There has been speculation about the possible replacement of the British.
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The escape of the seven-time world champion to the team Maranello leaves a very big void in Mercedes, so the squad leader, Toto Wolff, He must look for a suitable replacement that will allow him to dream of titles in the 'big circus' again.
One of the names that would be being strongly considered is that of the Spanish Fernando Alonso, who has a contract with Aston Martin until the end of this season and could take an important leap in the twilight of his career.
Mercedes He looks for immediate results and would not have in his plans to entrust the seat to a young and promising pilot, they prefer experience. Already at the time, the former pilot Jason Button proposed Alonso for Mercedes.
However, the pilot Oscar Piastri went further and risked predicting that Fernando Alonso will be the replacement of Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes. “Alonso will go to Mercedes”he said in the middle of a test in Bahrain.
These are not minor words, since the current McLaren driver was a teammate of the Spanish driver in Alpine and has certain ties with the two-time Formula 1 world champion, his representative Mark Webber He is a very good friend of Alonso.
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Alonso lives a new youth
The years seem not to pass by Fernando Alonsowho at 42 years old, seems to be living a second youth with Aston Martin and has never been so close to resuming his winning tally in Formula 1, stop at 32 since 2013.
On the eve of competing in the longest season in the history of F1 – with a record of 24 Grand Prix – the double world champion in 2005 and 2006 is clear: “The numbers I have achieved this year in all the physical tests that we do every season have been the best ever.
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
The Spaniard, fitter than ever, will begin his 21st season in the premier class of motorsport this weekend in Bahrain and is aiming for a 33rd victory in F1, which would make him the oldest winner of a Grand Prix since the British Nigel Mansell in 1994.
The Asturian owes this renaissance above all to Aston Martin. Far from the best in 2022, the English team he signed for in 2023 surprised everyone with their performance that year, especially at the beginning. “This season is incredible and surprisingly good,” he said.
Alonso in an interview with AFP in spring 2023.
“We thought we had a good car, but not to the point of rivaling Mercedes and Ferrari, which has surprised us,” he added. Last year, Alonso He achieved eight podiums in 22 races, something he was not used to in the last decade, except for the exception of Qatar in 2021 with the French Alpine team.
Fourth in the championship, he had never finished this high since the 2012 and 2013 seasons, when he finished in second place. “Together with 2012 (when he fought for the title with the German Sebastian Vettel), I consider this to be the best season of my life. Without a doubt, even better than 2005 and 2006,” he said.
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Since his arrival in F1 in 2001 with Minardi – the current triple world champion Max Verstappen was only three years old at the time – Alonso has had several lives on roads and circuits. Double world champion with Renault, he signed for Ferrari (2010-2014), without achieving any new title, and then moved to McLaren (2015-2018).
Alpine team car.
Without the means to win again in F1, the man from Oviedo left the 'Great Circus' for two years, in which he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 (when he was still in F1) and 2019, the world endurance championship in 2018-2019, with Toyota, and participated in the Indianapolis 500 and the Dakar rally. A parenthesis that suited him well: “It helped me, perhaps not so much for the driving style but more for the mentality and focus, the motivation,” he told AFP last year.
“When you're in F1 since you were 18, it's not that you lose motivation, which I've always had, but I was tired of travelling, of routine, of repeating the same thing, so those two years were refreshing, I was able to recharge my batteries. batteries,” he added, claiming to be “much cooler.”
After returning to F1 in 2021 with Alpine, Alonso He could only be ninth in the championship in 2022, a season in which he broke the record for races in Grand Prix, surpassing the Finn's 350 Kimi raikkonen.
Where will this 'forty-year-old' stop? “A few years ago I said that perhaps 42 or 41 years was the limit to continue running here. Now, after seeing myself motivated and performing well last year, I thought that maybe I can continue running for a few more years,” he said in mid-February. .
“I would say if you're motivated and want to commit, you can ride maybe until you're 48 or 49, or even 50,” he added. The 'Benjamin Button' of F1, who will start his 379th GP on Saturday, may already be thinking about another record: being the oldest driver in F1, surpassing the Monegasque Louis Chiron and his 55 years and nine months in 1955.
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With information from AFP.
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