Alonso's Staying! But What FOR?

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2:05That's growtherapy.com slash start now Growtherapy.com slash start now availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan I almost had a heart attack. You lot felt probably the same way but hey, okay? Fernando staying But what's he staying for? He'll be 46 in a team sitting 10th out of 11 Three points from 15 rounds and he scored all three. Then he pulls a fast one by saying I will retire from Formula One, dramatic pause but not yet Him in 2024 calling Aston Martin a lifetime project His relationship with Aston was supposed to outlast his Formula One career But what happens if that competitive car arrives and he chose to stop driving? What then? Win number 33 would elude him forever So what we got the other day was whether or not that future of his with Aston Martin would be behind the wheel and short answer See And a long time coming too because let's just say he's not exactly enjoyed this season

3:10Nor he had to he enjoyed the car and not to mention the entire Aston Martin package has been really lacking in terms of power and Dribability and before you say it's all Honda's fault Let's not forget about the gearbox because that's something Aston Martin makes truly themselves And that package producing moments when the car could easily be described as being four seconds behind the rest And at the beginning of the year it was closer to five seconds I know about run plans and practices and what have you but still five seconds is five seconds and any average fan that sees five seconds between themselves and first You're gonna hear about it and yet despite that lack of competitiveness Alamso still wants more So does he know something that we don't has Adrian Newey sewn something in terms of the numbers that have gotten his juices flowing And I know that sounds very awkward talking about Alamso and juice It may be Honda's found some missing performance as well I mean yes, of course Alamso knows far more about the project than we ever will but I think that's a little bit too obvious for this video

4:11Especially when we've got Alamso telling us not to assume that kind of stuff so okay then Fernando What is it? After hungry he said Aston's direction have become clearer then warn that every team becomes optimistic over the winter He doesn't want to hear promises nor make promises Belief without Garren Tours he wants where he does get specific though is indeed with Adrian Newey Quote, probably the biggest contributor end quote he said After 25 years he's finally gotten the chance at Aston to work with him So walking away now only for the thing to fly one year later That could become one of the biggest regrets of his life Even bigger than it was leaving Ferrari to go to McLaren And his attitude to continuing has changed too Because two years ago in 2024 we not only got a little bit of a parody of Sebastian Vettel's retirement announcement as well He said Alamso he had 99% confidence that he would be staying in Formula One Cut to nail though it's now a case not related to confidence

5:12But whether or not he actually still had the body in which that could take Formula One And he's been asking himself that for a good several months now So that is quite the shift if you ask me And that's what I think makes 2027 rather personal Does he feel fast enough and does he still enjoy Formula One? Well in terms of the former he sounds absolutely certain He thinks that he can still make it in Formula One Him sounding annoyingly certain about that Because when he finds himself studying on boards and starts and overtakes He can still find things about certain elements within that footage that other drivers simply cannot Most notably and obviously the likes of Lance Stroll His words not mine according to a recent BBC sport interview In that Fernando said watching F1 from home while believing he could still do the job would drive him mad Walking away now could almost feel like retiring because somebody else hadn't finished the job Yeah, checks out But there's a less romantic explanation we have to test anyway Because Aston Martin might be the only place that would actually have him at this point

6:13Most of the grid is already tied down and we've seen him and his bud Flavio tease potentially a fourth go around at Alpine a few times But that ultimately went nowhere Faii okay fair enough that was all part of gamesmanship in terms of trying to up his Aston Martin contract Because it could easily be 38 million dollars a year next year and Flavio is his manager So does that fact take away the vote of confidence that Alonso has in the overall project of Aston Martin? I would say a little bit and quite frankly he doesn't really need Formula One anymore Because remember the last time that he retired he went off to go and do other things Not to mention the Indy 500 but also the likes of the world endurance championship and Le Mans with Toyota Winning on that occasion as well as doubling in a little bit of Dakar rallying with Toyota And actually showing himself to be a rather deb-hand at the category So yeah I don't think Fernando will be lacking in terms of things to do after Formula One and these things are actually quite nice

7:14Yet he chooses to remain in Formula One anyway, him saying that it is quote in my blood So now the question could easily be what exactly does Fernando Alonso want from Formula One itself these days? And Aston's lack of competitors it turns out was not one of the things that he wants the critical point when he was considering his future His bigger concern was perhaps what these cars actually asked the driver to do Because Alonso's main complaint is that modern F1 can fight the instincts drivers spend their whole lives developing The art of breaking as late as possible attacking the corner carrying speed and taking risks Now though through energy deployment it can sometimes ask for something completely different And I easily believe what Fernando is talking about because he runs a car-sing academy He is the guy that helps shape developmental tools for very young people wanting to get into racing He sees it at the grassroots level and he's right at the top of the food chain and he's going well What's the point of teaching all of this if they are aiming to get to Formula One?

8:15If they ultimately don't have to know all of these things And I think one of the strangest anomalies that we have seen in recent times was what happened with Valtteri Bottas around Baku After running wide at turn one earlier that lap, Bottas set the extra distance apparently confused the car's energy calculations He later lost rear harvesting and breaking contribution before he crashed at turn 15 That's a much weirder problem than simply being short of horsepower And what that results is in the Spaniard declaring F1 as the only category in the world where you have to quote Drive slow to go fast end quote with Silverstone, Spar and Suzuki being the worst offenders Tracks with corners that easily had to be committed to 100% Being drastically altered by energy deployment and harvesting That they are completely unrecognizable these days And in fact, Fernando goes even further than I saying that some of these corners really iconic ones are assassinated by the regulations

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10:18See if you could pay as little as $0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com slash start now That's growtherapy.com slash start now Growtherapy.com slash start now Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan And I think that complaint stretches far further than the second to last team We've heard this across the board These regulations are indeed not popular It's not like Fernando Alonso is embodying the meme old man yells at cloud I mean, but we're hearing the young men complaining about this as well Universal And while Alonso was discussing whether or not he would like to continue, we also heard the stuff regarding Stefano Diminicale and Ben Sulyam, the FIA president And that those three men had been conversing with one another In fact, the FIA president publicly said that there was no way Alonso should leave because poor circumstances pushed in out Some conversations involved Honda as well and the help available to struggling engine manufacturers

11:21The regulations are changing too as well, so the driving experience he does dislike is not being locked in But changing what formula one rewards from the driver doesn't automatically fix Honda's competitiveness Because Honda, they've already used both their additional development opportunities for this season The first package coming for the Dutch Grand Prix and the second, a stealthy one, included a revised turbo Aimed partly a delayed engine response in time for Madrid And if you are thinking that this surprise upgrade was something that could easily transform Asden Martin season At least give them the opportunity to maybe go for double figures this year No, Honda says that this update was a very very small one And yet Alonso is deciding despite all of that to give them another season anyway And that in turn makes I think his decision to give it a go for another year or maybe more Harder to justify in terms of believing that Honda have found an absolute breakthrough As we stand right now, it's quite clear that they have not

12:21There is still performance to extract from this particular package and it is going to have to go into 2027 But this change of motive from not that long ago when Honda said that they would not have a second AD or upgrade And then shift that focus to 2027 has now changed They've decided to do two this year anyway Was this the plan all along or was this say last resort sort of thing? But yeah, we should just not expect Honda to transform its fortunes overnight Okay, so okay, how much more can the thing that he's now agreed to race actually deliver at this point? Well, it's gone to the point where Alonso in his older years has decided that he wants to give Honda a second chance That they deserve that second chance and it goes to show how far this man has come 11 years after he gave that infamous assessment of the GPU to engine at Honda's home circuit no less in his McLaren days He's back with them and everything seems to be akin to water under the bridge but at the same time he is not flattering them He is saying that not everything has been fixed a lot of things have been fixed

13:21But still there is a long way to go and he also says that next year the fixes may not guarantee that they'll be right up there with Ferrari and Mercedes Or even where Audi are right now in the 4% bracket yet he is deciding to hang his coat on their coat hook anyway And as in the McLaren fan that kind of commitment does things to me it makes me just remember the deck chair and every winter convincing ourselves that Honda Oh, they finally cracked it! Fernando could maybe get a podium one more time! No, no, no. I've already gone through enough emotional turmoil through winter testing to last me a lifetime Thank you very much Alonso knows all too well what waiting for Honda can cost yet, yeah? We got that announcement! So perhaps the better question to ask right now is what will make all of that waiting worthwhile? He's waiting for Asden Martin to become competitive providing Honda another development cycle to close the gap to the rest of the field And pushing F1 that is in his blood toward racing he thinks rewards the driver properly

14:21Three different things within one very finite career The oldest F1 driver to still be scoring points since Graham Hill in the mid-1970s Because the old one always seemed to be racing the calendar because every wrong calm and another season disappearing Now he talks about simulator work and cockpit changes and the process of building something And when publication ASK asked what result would make next year satisfying Alonso couldn't really name one Instead he basically said the journey was the reward You might be saying you might be getting your phone of doubt out and saying that's a very convenient thing to be saying when you're in the second to last team And yeah, I will give you that it is a little bit convenient But it is quite safe to say also that Alonso still cares about results, he's not given up on them Winning still the dream and he is making these sacrifices in waiting for things to come good because he believes he can get results The difference now in his older years than his younger years is that realistically him getting one more victory or three more podiums to his name

15:24It's not really going to change who he is and what he believes he is contributed to Formula One because he already knows what kind of legacy he has in the sport He's won two world titles, he's the longest serving F1 driver of all time by a noticeable margin and he already knows what he has achieved We are not going to be forgetting about Fernando Alonso anytime soon And that in turn is where I think his decision to stay it comes a lot easier to understand he is not chasing glory He is basically just wanting just to enjoy himself It's part of his DNA Formula One and Ashton Martin seems more than happy to indulge him in that particular pastime Sort of reminds me of what Kimmy Reichenum was doing over Alfa Romeo, he wasn't chasing glory He just still liked Formula One up until well he didn't What it does tell me is that there isn't a performance metric that Ashton Martin have to score this amount of points Or they have to get to this certain level in the championship or he has to be at a certain place in the championship or else he will walk away That doesn't give Ashton Martin an excuse to deal with anything like that they still need to deliver on their promise

16:27But working with Neue and helping develop a car and continuing to race that can give Alonso plenty of reasons to get up in the morning But none of that makes three points a good enough result for this team His personal reasons for continuing and the team's responsibility to improve can exist together He can enjoy building something while expecting it to work and Barcelona gave him another reason to want the next chapter Because Alonso went into that weekend knowing it could be his last Spanish Grand Prix there At the track where he won race number 32 The last time he won a Grand Prix 13 years ago but the crowd to him didn't behave like they were watching a farewell or a funeral He said they treated his career more like half time at the end of the day, half time at 45 That's quite the compliment and something that tells me that Formula One is not yet done with Fernando Alonso Yes, there are moments when I do see areas of the Formula One fandom that says that he is washed that he's too old And that he should just get the hell out of there and not take up space for a brand new younger driver

17:29Well, I mean, in truth that responsibility is in the hands of Llan Stroll So I think yeah, Fernando gets off pretty easy in that regard And what I find really cool about that is that that revelation around the Barcelona Catalonia Grand Prix Was that this was months before we got that announcement video the other day So this was something that he saw in real time and probably became a huge contributing factor In order to remain in Formula One that he saw the crowds out there, yes, the home crowds admitted but plenty of international representation And that he felt wanted in short seeing people wanting another chapter of your career probably fed into him wanting that chapter too And it shows that Aston Martin need all of these achievements more than Fernando Alonso needs them He wants them but he doesn't need them They've got the factory, they've got the wind tunnel, they've got Adrian Neue, they've got all of this investment and sponsorship And experience and expertise yet they still have only three points this year This was meant to be their year of transformation Their year to prove that they could be the best works team around the super team

18:32At some point they need to be reasons to stop believing in the project and reasons to just point out and go well yeah, duh, that's why the car's fast And that leaves three questions hanging over the team after Fernando Alonso has graced them another year with his presence in the cockpit Can Aston build the car at promised and can Honda make this engine worthy of the second chance he's giving it and conform to the one Make these cars feel more like the machines Alonso still wants to race He's giving all of them more time to answer And yes, he'll be 46 next season and a team can spend years becoming competitive and a championship can spend years rewriting regulations A driver meanwhile can't manufacture extra seasons Now he's definitely not said 2027 will be his final year with that half-time quote It makes me feel like he might actually make it all the way through to 2030 when we'll see the brand new regulations potentially Alongside those V8 turbos that are being touted But every single season that he has to spend waiting for that final product to come his way that could actually bestow a win upon him

19:34Means one more year that he has to wait and one more year that could easily see him start to doubt his own body that little bit more And by the time he gets that position where the car is good enough he might not feel like he's good enough That's the cost that his willingness to continue does not remove And maybe that's what made that announcement video of Aston Martin's even more compelling and even more resounding than a typical announcement ever could be Even more impactful than the comedic joke regarding Max Wsines or Max Resigns Admittedly those were very good clips but that Aston Martin won I can tell you my heart rate was at 103 the moment before he said but not yet Because for a few seconds we were being confronted with something that we thought would never happen We were all thinking is this it? Is Fernando Alonso announcing that he's retiring? Is this day finally coming? Well no not yet but not yet now comes with a catch Another season means another year for Aston, Honda and Formula One to get that little bit closer to the kind of racing that Fernando Alonso wants to see

20:38And considering the amount of fans and the amount of presence that he has and respect he has with the rest of the drivers What he wants is probably very close to what all the other drivers want It's just he has that gravitas in order to get things done And he doesn't really care about the consequences Far more brazen than these PR controlled drivers we are seeing within the younger ranks I mean yeah he can remain with Aston Martin until the day he dies He can do whatever he wants and represent any side of the business that he chooses to But the time spent behind the wheel driving that Formula One car that does have a little bit of a time limit He has stopped the clock in terms of his Formula One career at least for a little bit longer But now the clock has started somewhere else All of the other elements that I have just listed they got to start getting moving to try and make sure that Alonso stays for as long as possible He's already given us the answer that yes he is staying and I think he's now given us a clue for what he is staying for But now the onus is on everyone else to start moving and get their act together

21:39Because otherwise there may not be time for him to be able to indulge in the things that he has been wanting But you can indulge in this video right here which I know you will enjoy I'll just go and freshen myself up and I'll be right with you Thanks for listening to my ladder ramblings If you liked what you heard do be sure to leave a five-star rating on your podcasting platform of choice I really do appreciate it and until the next time I traverse the ladder I hope you have a pleasant day Goodbye