In Fernando Alonso, F1 regains the anti-hero it needs: ‘I’m still the bad guy’

“It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”

Taylor Swift was surely singing about herself in “Anti-Hero,” but it’s easy to imagine that Fernando Alonso could have a writing credit on the song.

Since becoming the sport’s youngest two-time world champion at 25 in 2006, Alonso has been on a long, winding search for a third title. In that time, he’s logged a couple of near misses and plenty of burned bridges.

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Now 41 and driving for Aston Martin, F1’s self-anointed anti-hero is ready to be a force at the front once again. In a season that has early signs of more Max Verstappen and Red Bull domination, Alonso’s return to a front-running position with a podium in the Bahrain GP could be an extremely refreshing storyline — and one bound to set off fireworks.

Alonso’s rap sheet

“In Formula 1, there has to be always good characters and bad ones. Heroes and anti-heroes. I’m on the dark side.”

That was Alonso, in his own words, in the latest series of “Drive to Survive.” He’s aware of the reputation he has carved over the past 20 years as one of the most demanding and occasionally explosive drivers when things do not go to plan.

His 2007 rivalry with then-rookie Lewis Hamilton at McLaren caused deep rifts within the team, Alonso having arrived off the back of two titles with Renault and expecting to be the undisputed number one. Both drivers missed out on the championship, and the friction boiled over, leading to Alonso leaving after just a single year.

His 2010 move to Ferrari seemed a perfect match; that ended after 2014 with Alonso still lacking a third title and the team signing Sebastian Vettel as a replacement. Alonso’s remarkable return to McLaren in 2015 only yielded further frustration, much of it aimed at Honda, McLaren’s engine supplier. His derision of the power unit as a “GP2 engine” (GP2 being the series below F1 at the time) at Honda’s home race in Japan proved a fractious moment in the relationship.

Another public showing came four races later in Brazil. After an engine issue forced him to park up at the side of the track in qualifying, Alonso grabbed a lawn chair belonging to a nearby track marshal and sat sunbathing, watching the rest of the session and posing for the TV cameras. It became a lasting image of his time with the team.

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Tired of life in the midfield, Alonso left F1 at the end of 2018 to pursue other racing interests. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice and raced at the Indianapolis 500, but soon found himself chasing an F1 return. He landed at Alpine, the team formerly known as Renault, in 2021.

Alonso had lost little of his edge in his time away from F1, ending his podium drought with third place in the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix. But his demanding, obsessive pursuit of success was also evident. Last year alone, he called the F1 driver stewards “incompetent” over a penalty in Miami, said former teammate Hamilton could only win a race when he started first after their collision at Spa, and bemoaned the reliability of Alpine’s power unit that he claimed contributed to costing him upwards of 70 points.

But no Alonso moment in 2022 came close to the bombshell he dropped by leaving Alpine for Aston Martin.

A perfect match

For weeks leading up to last year’s summer break, Alonso had been saying he would sign a contract extension with Alpine. It was just a matter of the finer details.

Then those details proved sticky — Alpine wanted to give Alonso just a one-year deal — and Vettel retired, opening a seat at Aston Martin. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, clandestine meetings were held, a contract was signed, champagne flutes were clinked, and Alonso was snuck out the back of Aston Martin’s hospitality area. A press release sent out at 9 a.m. the next morning alerted Alpine and the rest of the world that Alonso would be wearing green in 2023.

Part of the shock was that Alonso was quitting the team running fourth in the championship for the team that was ninth. But he explained that he saw far more potential in the Aston Martin project, into which owner Lawrence Stroll has invested hundreds of millions of dollars. Reflecting on his time at Alpine, Alonso said: “We were just fourth and they were happy with fourth, they were fifth and they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh was a celebration. Here, there are no celebrations until we win.”

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He has also brought an honesty that the team felt it needed. “We are really happy with his demanding attitude,” team principal Mike Krack said at the launch of Aston Martin’s car last month. “There is no hiding. You cannot hide in front of Fernando Alonso. So I think we go open visor into the discussions: Be honest, be open, be transparent, and I do not expect any issues.”

Alonso has regularly heralded Stroll’s vision and track record. “Since the first day in Aston Martin, I felt exactly the same values from the people around me,” the driver said at this year’s car launch. “(Lawrence) had a lot of success in many different things and many different projects in his life. I see there is no doubt that Formula 1 will not be different. He will succeed sooner or later.”

Both men have reputations for being relentless and hugely successful. Upon getting out of his car on the way to the grid before Sunday’s race, Alonso was immediately greeted by Stroll Sr., the pair sharing a hug and a quick pre-race chat. It’s a sign of a bond that is already strong; a gesture never seen so early in previous relationships between Alonso and his various teams.

Are fireworks inevitable?

Basking in the glow of his Bahrain podium and the obvious pace of the Aston Martin car, Alonso is in a very good place. He has real hope of scoring 33rd career victory. He said he’s the happiest he’s been in F1 since his last win, in 2013.

On the radio in Bahrain, you could hear the happiness flowing through Alonso through the closing stages of the race. After pulling off stunning overtakes on Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, both coming at parts of the track you’d normally not think about trying a pass, Alonso spent the closing laps reveling in his machine. “This is a lovely car to drive,” he said.

Aston Martin has an ambitious plan for this year. Its development path should see two-thirds of the car — already 95% new for this year — be upgraded by the end of the season. Its target remains finishing fourth as the leading midfield team. But if Alonso’s Bahrain pace translates to the next few tracks and more podiums follow, the team might set its sights higher.

So what happens when things do, as they inevitably do in F1 from time to time, go wrong? Once the honeymoon glow has worn off, will Alonso find himself frustrated when there’s a lack of pace compared to the cars around him, an inability to fight for the positions his talent deserves? Or will he keep playing the long game, even at 41, and know the real success for him and Aston Martin may not arrive for another year or two?

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Even if things do stay cordial between Alonso and Aston Martin, you can be sure of fireworks elsewhere. He’s never afraid to say what he’s thinking, be it about other drivers, race officials or the state of F1’s ruleset.

In an era where drivers are media trained into public quiescence, Alonso gives much-needed color to F1.

As he put it signing off from season five of “Drive to Survive”: “Bye bye. I’m still the bad guy.”

(Photo of Fernando Alonso: Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images)