Alonso’s Comeback Is Unnecessary | Dhimas’s Opinion
Fernando Alonso is finally come back to Formula One grid. The 2-time F1 World Champion who are many considered as one of the greatest driver of all time indeed left an impression when he quitted the sport in the end of 2018 that he’s still have a few unfinished businesses in F1. Renault decided to signed their former world champion to help the team laying its foundation ahead of the upcoming new regulations in 2022. Many fans is excited with him coming back to the sport, but also some don’t get it why is that need to happen in the first place. One of the latter is including me. I do think Fernando Alonso’s comeback is unnecessary, both for him and the sport. Here is why.
He is not what Renault really needs
Renault signed Daniel Ricciardo in the summer of 2018 with a hope that he can play a key part in laying the foundation for the future of the team especially for the upcoming major regulation changes that was scheduled to happen in 2021. But of course the whole story didn’t go that way. Ricciardo choose to sign with McLaren from 2021 onwards and although the new regulations is pushed back to 2022 this was a huge blow the team. Renault must decide quickly on who will be Daniel’s replacement to build the team around. In this stage they need someone who had enough experience to build the team but also having enough time to actually perform with the team when the new regulations is effective.
In this case, I think Fernando Alonso wouldn’t be suitable in any ways. Daniel is 30 years old when he signed with the team. Surely we can expect that he is in his prime years of performance and also having a few years ahead to be at the similar level. Alonso is 38 years old when he signed for the third time in his career for Renault. He will drive the new regulation car when he is 40 years old. It would be dumb if we expect him to perform at a similar level as of now during that stage of his career. I doubt he will even continue racing in F1 beyond 2022. This will eventually caused the team to re-adapt to Fernando’s replacement in the beginning of the new regulation’s era which is better to avoid.
I also wanted to point out that Fernando is not a particularly good choice for a team to build around their car and team as a whole. Fernando is a fantastic driver and there’s no doubt about that. He is also almost always able to push every car that has been given to him to its maximum limit of performance. But, if we are looking to the history the fact that the team he driven for was never really developed during his time there is raising my concern for Renault’s actual plan for the future.
In his Ferrari years he definitely can challenge for the title multiple times against the mighty Red Bull. But, Ferrari as a team didn’t develop that much. His challenge for the title mainly as a result of his brilliant driving performances alone, not because of the car was getting better performances in effect that the car was built around him. And then we go to his McLaren days which was coincidental with Honda’s early struggles in this V6 hybrid era. He did complained a lot about their power unit both on team radio and the media. This was also undoubtedly one of few reason that Honda and McLaren partnership didn’t worked out.
Formula One is getting younger as ever
Formula One is indeed evolving. In the past decade there has been an influx of young drivers competing in the sport, particularly after 2015 when Max Verstappen joined the grid in the age of just 17 years old and he was quite able to deliver straight away. So, it has been some sort of normality when we expect more young drivers coming to the sport earlier than ever. So do I in this Renault case. I want to see a young driver from Renault’s own academy to fill that empty seat for 2020 whether its Guanyu Zhou or Christian Lundgaard or anyone else.
But, of course if they did that it will have a major impact in effort to build the team because there is not enough experience between the to drivers. They did have to pick a senior driver with a decent amount of experience but ultimately I think that should be a driver who is still have time to grow together with the team. That’s definitely not Fernando Alonso in my opinion. It would be better if they hired Vettel or bringing back Hulkenberg who was in fact is the longest serving driver for them after they came back as a factory works team in 2016.
Fernando doesn’t need F1 and Renault anymore
Finally here is my take on why a return to F1 is also unnecessary for Fernando. As we know Fernando Alonso is now chasing for the “Triple Crown of Motorsport” which include a win in Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. So far he accomplished two wins in both Monaco Grand Prix and 24 Hours of Le Mans. I do think if he is that serious about chasing the triple crown he should instead go to IndyCar rather than coming back to F1.
So far he already attempted Indy 500 twice in 2017 and 2019. The first one was not bad overall. He started in the front pack and led couple of laps before eventually and ironically have to retire after his Honda engine failed. The second one is an embarrassment when he didn’t even qualified for the final grid of the race and it was mainly due to lack of preparation from the team. If he’s serious about it then I suggest he should do a full season in IndyCar not just a one-time appearance in Indy 500. I want to see his approach to Indy 500 the same way as he approached Le Mans when he did in fact doing a full season for Toyota.
Fernando’s legacy in F1 is already cemented. He didn’t need to be a 3+ time world champion to be considered as one of the greats. He really needs to come back only if a clear world title opportunity is presented to him like from Mercedes for example. And its clearly not coming from Renault especially after these last couple of years of disappointment. I don’t see current Renault F1 Team as a team with enough prospect for the future under Cyril Abiteboul. They driver line-up is always different in each season since 2016 and after 4 years as a factory team they haven’t showed any major performance improvement whatsoever. And that fact is really concerning for a team with a massive budget behind them.
At the end of the day I think Fernando’s return won’t be having much effect in Renault’s development for the future and his achievements. It will just be another 2 years of having Fernando Alonso on the grid, fighting his car to the limit, but only to compete in the midfield yet again.
