Fernando Alonso has never hidden from a cold, hard stopwatch. In fact, he’s used it as a mirror. Speaking to DAZN, the two-time World Champion admitted that when he returned to Formula 1 in 2021, the timer told an uncomfortable truth: he was a few tenths off.
“When I returned to F1, I thought I was at the same level as when I’d left two years earlier, but the stopwatch didn’t say that,” Alonso said. “The stopwatch said I was a few tenths slower. I also had no answers on how to find those tenths; I was already at my limit.”
For a driver who built a career on extracting more than the car had any right to give, that was a jolt. Alonso described it as a “reset” of the cognitive system after a break — a recalibration that only comes with laps, pressure, and the relentless repetition F1 demands. The trick, he says, is keeping the confidence without letting it tip into ego.
“You can’t have an ego because that’ll slow you down and won’t help you at all, but you do need a lot of self-esteem and confidence in yourself,” he added. “That confidence has to be bulletproof. It’s hard to balance confidence and ego on a scale.”
Alonso knows all about scales tipping. His career has swung between highs and hard lessons: debut in 2001, back-to-back titles in 2005 and ’06 with Renault, bruising chapters at Ferrari and McLaren, and then a two-year F1 hiatus chasing Indy and Dakar. He came back with Alpine in 2021 and 2022 — steady seasons that both ended on 81 points — before jumping to Aston Martin and lighting up 2023 with eight podiums and fourth in the standings.
The fairytale didn’t roll into 2024 the way he or Aston would’ve liked. As the team shifted resources toward 2026’s new ruleset, results softened. But that long game is the crux of why Alonso is still sharpening knives at 44. The next reboot comes with a Honda power unit and a car set to be penned by Adrian Newey — a pairing that’s already had rival garages peeking over the fence. Honda’s recent F1 track record needs little selling, and Newey’s influence is, well, Newey. Put simply: if you’re hunting a late-career shot at a third title, there are worse horses to back.
It’s also why Alonso’s self-diagnosis from 2021 feels relevant now. The tenths he says he initially lost when he came back? He found them, and then some, between Aston’s 2023 spike and his relentless grid craft since. He remains with Aston Martin in 2025 alongside Lance Stroll, per the current entry list, with 2026 looming as the final year of his present deal — and the one many have circled in green.
There’s admiration, and there’s the inevitable nudge, from his peers. Jenson Button, the 2009 World Champion and one of the few with a proper handle on longevity at the sharp end, offered both.
“It’s great that he’s still competing and he’s still so competitive,” Button told Sky F1, before joking that he’d quite like to see a pack of “little Fernandos” tearing up a kart track somewhere. The subtext: Alonso’s done enough to be remembered forever. If he wants to, he can start the next chapter on his own terms.
But Alonso doesn’t strike you as someone finished with the current one. Not with a factory partnership arriving, and not with Newey’s fingerprints likely on the car. Not when the field compresses with a new rulebook, and not with his execution on Sundays still as sharp as anyone’s.
Alonso’s career has always been part art, part calculation. The move to Aston was judged risky before it made perfect sense. The decision to grind through the team’s transitional dip was calculated patience. Now comes the payoff window: a Honda-powered Aston Martin, Newey in the building, and a driver who’s rebuilt his margin back to where he expects it to be. He’s not promising anything. He doesn’t have to. The stopwatch will do the talking — and Alonso’s ready to listen if it says “championship fight.”
