Fernando Alonso happy for Andrea Stella to get the F1 title in 2024 after losing out in 2010, when he was in Ferrari alongside the Spaniard.
The memories of 2010 is still afresh in the mind of Aston Martin’s Alonso. He lost the drivers’ title to Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel when Stella was his race engineer. Forward by 14 years and the Italian has finally earned the F1 championship with McLaren, but as a team principal.
It was unthinkable at the start of 2024 season but Stella and his team made it possible by the end of it after fending off Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. Pre-race in Abu Dhabi, Alonso wanted the Italian to take the trophy and post-race, he joked about deserving the credit for it.
“I’m a very good friend of Andrea,” said Alonso. “In a way, I brought him to McLaren when I joined McLaren. So I told him, before the race what Abu Dhabi took from our hands in 2010, hopefully it gives something back to you, and it did. Happy for him, he deserved it. He’s a very clever guy. And as I said, McLaren is an example for many things now.
“Yes. I should be part of his [Stella’s] bonus,” summed up Alonso with a joke. The Spaniard also revealed about spending some days with McLaren director Zak Brown in the period after their celebrations, driving older cars together, having rented a track.
The two have kept their relation intact despite Alonso’s bad run with McLaren whether in F1 and or IndyCar, when he was attempting to win Indy500. “I think Zak is a very good friend of mine,” said Alonso. “We will spend some days together now in the next few weeks that we will have some fun on a track day. We rented a track, actually. So I’m a good friend of Zak.”
Here’s how Brown and Alonso spend their day: https://x.com/ZBrownCEO/status/1869452594290057688
Here’s Fernando Alonso on positive end
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