“Super competitive, disciplined and talented,” claim team bosses as they reflect on Alonso’s F1 career

Reflecting on Fernando Alonso’s F1 career, Aston Martin’s team boss Mike Krack labelled the two-time F1 world champion as “super competitive, super disciplined and super talented.”

Having kicked off his weekend in Mexico City with illness, Fernando Alonso has completed his 400th F1 race at last Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix. The Spaniard made his debut at the pinnacle of motorsport with Minardi in 2001 which was followed by a year that he spent with Renault as a test driver.

The Oviedo-born driver returned to the sport as a full-time race driver in 2003, clinching his first F1 victory in that season. With Renault coming up with an innovative car for the 2005 F1 season, Alonso secured his first F1 title, beating McLaren’s Kimi Räikkönen. The next season saw the Spaniard receive fierce competition from Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, but he was able to add a second F1 title to his achievements.

Although he joined McLaren in the following season, he returned to Renault for the 2008 and 2009 F1 season before heading to Ferrari. Despite securing several sensational victories with the fabled Maranello-based outfit and getting close to further F1 titles in 2010 and 2012, he elected to part ways with the team to join forces with McLaren again in 2015.

Following a difficult period at the Woking-based outfit that saw McLaren struggle with its new engine partner, Honda, Alonso decided to leave Formula One at the end of the 2018 season before returning to the pinnacle of motorsport with Alpine for the 2021 season. The two-time F1 world champion left the Enstone-based team after just a single season to join Aston Martin.

Asked to comment on Alonso’s career as he has just achieved a landmark of 400 F1 races, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack characterized the Spaniard as “super competitive, super disciplined and super talented.”

“I think that is a question that we could ask many, many people in the F1 paddock. He has worked with a lot of teams already. I think we are privileged to be able to organise the celebration now with the party, but I think it’s tribute to everybody that has worked with him for all these years in the first place.

“But then, obviously, the individual, incredible career over the last 20-plus years, 400 race starts. I wish I could give him a winning car on Sunday. It would be difficult, but I think all in all, if you look back, or if you look at how at an advanced stage of the career he’s still performing, it’s incredible.

“So if you ask about character or adjectives, there are many, but I think what you need to really point out is the talent, obviously, as many people are having, but then the discipline and foremost, I think the desire, the desire to compete, super competitive. So super competitive, super disciplined and super talented,” concluded Krack.

Having worked with Alonso at Renault, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu has revealed that the Spaniard amazed him with how he managed the tyres over a long stint.

“I was a tyre engineer back then. So I was doing lots of tyre testing with Fernando. And what struck me was just unbelievable ability to understand. If you give him, ‘OK, I want you to do a 20-lap stint on these tyres.

“I want you to do these laps times for the final five laps of the stint, and then completely use up the tyre on the in-lap’, he can just do that, bang on, knows exactly what it’s going to be like by lap two, lap three, how he drives. He knows what the tyre’s going to be like on lap 20. And he never underused or overused the tyres. He can really hit that, bang on.

“I was really amazed at that ability. And also, like Mike said, just the desire. He loves the sport, doesn’t he? And just the desire. But yeah, that was really an eye-opener for me,” concluded Komatsu.