At 45, Fernando Alonso refuses to consider his age as a hindrance in Formula 1 and recalls a particularly tough episode for his younger rivals.
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Fernando Alonso clearly has no intention of letting his age dictate his retirement date. At 45, the two-time world champion continues to defend his place on the grid and believes that the performance of a Formula 1 driver cannot be analyzed in the same way as that of an athlete competing in much more physical disciplines.
While still considering the possibility of competing in a 24th season in 2027, the Spaniard was asked about a possible evolution of the cars that would allow drivers to extend their careers. He quickly dismissed this hypothesis by citing the very demanding 2023 Qatar Grand Prix as an example.
Alonso refuses to make age a problem
Alonso celebrated his 45th birthday in July and could be 46 during the next season if he decides to continue his career. You would have to go back to the 1964 Italian Grand Prix and Maurice Trintignant to find a driver aged 46 at the start of a Formula 1 race.
But for the Spaniard, applying the same age criteria to F1 as in other sports is a mistake.
“It’s because you are a sports journalist and that’s the normal trend,” Alonso replies when asked if easier-to-drive cars now allow drivers to stay longer in Formula 1.
“You consider that there is a certain age at which you are at your peak and then your performance should decline. But this is not football, this is not athletics, and this is not the NBA.”
“Everyone was half dead”
To support his argument, Alonso goes back to the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. The extreme temperatures had turned this race into a real survival test for the drivers.
Esteban Ocon notably vomited in his helmet, while Lance Stroll explained that he briefly lost consciousness at the wheel. Logan Sargeant was even forced to retire due to the effects of the heat.
Alonso was then 42 and claims to have coped much better with these conditions than several much younger drivers.
“When we raced in Qatar in 2023, everyone was half dead in parc fermé in front of me while I was doing very well. I was calmly doing my interviews on television. So it’s something completely different.”
Alonso takes Verstappen as an example
The Spaniard also believes that the physical and mental demands of a single-seater are not the same for every driver. Some have to use almost all their capacities to reach a certain level, while the most talented can achieve the same result with more margin.
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To illustrate his reasoning, Alonso directly cites Max Verstappen.
“There is someone who maybe uses 100% of his brain and physical capacities to drive the car, while Max Verstappen maybe only uses 10% because he simply operates at another level. So it depends on each person.”
A way for Alonso to remind that biological age is not enough to determine a driver’s competitiveness, especially in a discipline where experience, race reading, and adaptability also play a major role.
A new record after Zandvoort
His performances continue to allow him to inscribe his name in the longevity statistics of Formula 1. Thanks to his ninth place at the Dutch Grand Prix, Alonso has become the first driver over 45 to score points since Graham Hill at the 1974 Swedish Grand Prix.
He has also become the 13th oldest driver to have scored at least one point in a World Championship race. Alonso currently ranks 46th among the oldest drivers to have participated in a Grand Prix and should climb to 43rd before the end of the season.
The absolute record of Philippe Étancelin remains however very distant. To become the oldest driver to score points, Alonso would have to still be competitive after April 5, 2035, when he would be over 53 years old.
Motivation rather than age
Alonso obviously does not claim to want to race until then. In his eyes, the real question about his future is not physical anyway. It mainly depends on his desire to continue, the pleasure he takes at the wheel, and the goals he still has to achieve.
“Age is not a problem. It’s simply motivation, pleasure, and what remains to be accomplished,” he says.
“There are drivers who have never been on the podium, others who have never won a race, and some who dream of becoming world champions one day. I obviously still have these goals and this appetite, but I also have bigger ambitions.”
It is notably for this reason that Alonso left Formula 1 between 2019 and 2020 to explore other disciplines and complete his experience as a driver.
“I took those sabbatical years to become a more complete driver and learn different things, not just those specific to Formula 1.”
At 45, Alonso therefore does not seem to consider his physical condition as a sufficient argument to hang up his helmet. For the Spaniard, one question will really determine the length of his career: will he still have enough motivation and challenges to continue?
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