Fernando Alonso says his decision to go to Aston Martin was termed as the worst by people, but he reckons it turned out to be the best.
Having had success early in his career with world championship wins, Alonso has had a rough run post that where he has been chasing for a third title for long. The moves to McLaren, Ferrari, back to McLaren and Alpine (Renault) didn’t reap results.
He came in with much enthusiasm to each of his projects but it seemingly ended with some bitterness. All these years, his choice of teams and the moments he chose to switch were termed as wrong decisions by most which was true to a certain extent as well.
But Alonso feels the move to Aston Martin which was deemed as another failure in the making, it arguably is his best one of his career. It is not like he is winning the title straight up, but he is in a good position to score podiums and be closer to the top for now.
Even if he cannot win the title anymore, Alonso has hinted on being satisfied by winning some races before he retires and if Aston Martin wins championships after he leaves, he will be happy to have kick-started the programme which led to it.
“I would not change anything,” said Alonso when asked about his moves. “I don’t regret anything. No one has a crystal ball to know what is the performance of the teams in the following year. When I left Renault, which was the first decision, I joined McLaren, and that season, we fought for the World Championships.
“So, in terms of how competitive we were, it was a good thing and a good move. Then I joined Ferrari, I don’t think any of the drivers will reject an offer from Ferrari and join that team. And we fought for three Championships of the five years that I was there. Then I joined McLaren-Honda, which was a project that we all thought that it could be interesting and powerful. It didn’t work – OK, that thing can happen in this sport.
“And then I stopped Formula 1 because I had too many things in my head and too many challenges that I wanted to try. And it was a wonderful time in my career to try the endurance racing and that car, and Indy, with quite good success as well. So happy for that.
“And then I came back to Formula One with what I always considered my family in Alpine, in Renault. And now the last decision which for everyone’s opinion was the worst one, to go for Aston Martin. It was the best one, arguably of my career. So that just shows the difficulty of choosing teams, and lack of knowledge that everyone has at home,” summed up Alonso.
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