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Fernando Alonso is on the steadiest run of his Formula 1 comeback and that improved form is having a fiery side-effect.
The two-time world champion’s feisty, competitive side is part of his box-office appeal. But while Alonso has been getting back up to speed, that part of his personality has been a little dormant.
Alonso’s return is gaining momentum though. He has started to hit his stride, scoring points in every race of the recent triple-header, one of only six drivers to do so, and now has four points finishes in a row since his incredible surge in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix’s late restart.
As we see more of the old Alonso on-track – including extracting more than seems possible from a difficult Alpine car – so we see more of the old Alonso off it.
In those early weekends where, at times, it wasn’t going great for him in terms of performance, he was still all smiles. His message was consistent and clear: ‘I’m loving being back, this is much more enjoyable than I thought it would be, I’ve really missed being away, this is all rather lovely’.
Lately, more needle is creeping in. It is surely no coincidence that is happening just as he’s taken a clear performance step, and he’s got a little bit more at stake on-track.
Suddenly, Alonso is pointing out all of F1’s perceived ills, from his rivals’ errors or wrongdoings to the officials being underwhelming.
It started in Baku, where Alonso was very angry after a messy qualifying session that featured multiple crashes and red flags, saying drivers need to stop driving beyond their or their cars’ abilities.
It’s only escalated since then.
Alonso’s good form has continued since then. After Red Bull got a little bit of a telling off from the FIA for Max Verstappen’s burnout celebration in the Styrian Grand Prix, Alonso was sat alongside Verstappen in the Thursday press conference the following week.
After Verstappen answered a question about the FIA saying he could not repeat that celebration, Alonso piped up unprompted that perhaps the FIA should care more about policing their rules in the race itself – he was agitated that drivers had got away with abusing track limits the previous week.
The full extent of his fury was clear to see – and hear! – in his expletive-laden rant after being impeded by Sebastian Vettel in qualifying.
But Alonso later admitted Vettel was the victim of other drivers taking liberties by backing him up despite a clear instruction from the race director not to create a gap at that part of the circuit.
So, the officials were targeted (again) afterwards when Alonso effectively blamed the stewards for creating a lenient environment: “That has to be managed a little bit better in the top category and be harsh with penalties. This is a consequence of being too soft on penalties.”
In the race he raged over the radio after seeing Daniel Ricciardo benefit from running wide at Turn 1 at the start, calling for a penalty and returning to the topic a short while later to stress: “The Ricciardo thing is the most important [thing right now], we must race fair in Formula 1.”
Subsequently, and rife with sarcasm, Alonso suggested that if the FIA is “happy with track limits” he would take advantage himself, later extending to suggest other rule infringements might be allowed even posing the rhetorical question: “There are rules or no rules in this race?”
It looks like whining. However, nothing Alonso’s complained about has been wide of the mark. This isn’t the same attention-grabbing Alonso who, in the twilight of his disappointing McLaren reunion, spent most of 2017 and 2018 labelling every other qualifying performance the greatest lap of his career, or celebrating countless amazing overtakes or race drives.
It’s actually an indication of just how seriously Alonso’s taking this comeback and a warning for anyone who might be underestimating him or questioning his competitive fire. Clearly, it’s still burning very brightly.
Why are we seeing this now? Possibly because he was biting his tongue early on but now feels confident enough to share his true feelings as he’s starting to produce the sort of performances to justify it. Possibly because he simply now has more at stake with better results on the cards.
Possibly because he’s just genuinely getting annoyed as his own exploits are being unfairly undermined.
Most likely it’s a combination of the three. The better he does, the more he enjoys it. And a happy Alonso is a committed Alonso, a spiky Alonso, a fiery Alonso.
That’s great value for Formula 1. In this form, on track or off it, there are few drivers like Fernando.
