Fernando Alonso, the detonator of the summer break in Formula 1

• Alpine driver Fernando Alonso is causing upheaval among Formula 1 drivers after the announcement of his departure from Aston Martin.

• Following this departure, Alpine announced that Oscar Piastri, their reserve driver, would be behind the wheel next year.

  An announcement immediately denied by the person concerned, the Australian should engage with McLaren which has just announced the departure of Daniel Ricciardo.

• By choosing Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso is failing his Renault/Alpine "family", which had already been the case during his long career.

Fernando Alonso the elusive.

The summer break in Formula 1 was far from easy for many teams and drivers, after the Oscar Piastri imbroglio.

The young Australian hopeful, who has never competed in a single Grand Prix in Formula 1, did not hesitate to publicly disavow the team that has been incubating him for several years, Alpine.

No, he will not drive for the French team next season.

Since then, several rumors have sent him to McLaren, which announced on Wednesday the early termination of the contract of its driver Daniel Ricciardo.

A summer upheaval "never seen since the 2000s", according to Eric Boullier, director of the Grand Prix de France and former team principal of McLaren, whose common denominator is a certain Fernando Alonso.

From the first day of this summer break, the day after the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Asturian bull announced his surprise departure from Alpine to join Aston Martin, after the retirement of four-time world champion Sebastien Vettel.

Then followed the game of musical chairs that we know.

“It surprised me in terms of timing, no one expected to see such a bomb explode on the first day of the holidays.

That he leaves Alpine, that surprises me less.

By dint of working on Alonso, you learn to decipher it.

When he starts to criticize the management of the team a little in the press, it means he is going to leave.

This was already the case with Ferrari, ”recalls Loïc Chenevas-Paule, journalist in Provence and author of the biography

, published in May 2022 by Talent Sport.

Contract frustration

Thursday, during the traditional press conferences of the drivers before the Grand Prix de Spa [Sunday, 3 p.m.], Alonso, two titles in 2005 and 2006 with Renault and a return in 2020 with Alpine, did not hesitate to swing on his future former team: "I am happy to be able to express myself to say that all the people who should have been informed have been informed.

All of Alpine's management, except Otmar [Szafnauer, Alpine team principal] who is right when he says he didn't know, was right before the announcement.

So Laurent [Rossi, president of Alpine], president Di Meo [Luca Di Meo, CEO of Renault] but also my engineers, all my mechanics”.

Fortunately, the double world champion considers them his "family".

Otherwise what would it be?

Through this declaration, he could not do better to put the team's three thinking heads into the sauce, before putting a layer on the Piastri imbroglio: "I said to myself that for Alpine, if I left , they could offer this steering wheel to a young driver, like Oscar [Piastri].

It was a win-win”

Behind this excess of good faith, it is the duration of his contract that would have stuck.

Alpine offered him a final year, before considering installing the young Oscar Piastri.

But Fernando Alonso repeated that he saw himself in Formula 1 for another “two or three seasons”.

“Alonso is an extremely competitive person, he imposes a huge lifestyle on himself and he expects the same from his team.

This decision stems from a form of frustration", believes Eric Boullier who knew him during his disappointing return to McLaren between 2015 and 2018. A frustration verbalized by Fernando Alonso himself, on the sidelines of the Grand Prix of Belgium, in Spa, to explain his departure from Aston Martin: "They told me that only the performance counts on Saturday and Sunday, and not the age registered on my passport".

The Aston Martin project

And when the double world champion is frustrated, expect surprises.

“It's a character trait that you find from the start in Alonso.

When he won his first title with Renault, Ron Denis, McLaren's team principal, already approached him to negotiate his future contract for 2007, when we were at the end of 2005. You have to imagine the atmosphere in the team when 'Alonso has just been champion and Renault has carried him a lot.

The team had legitimate reasons to feel betrayed.

But Alonso always thought first of his career, and we can't blame him, ”recalls Loïc Chevenas-Paule.

Formula 1 is indeed one of the most individualistic team sports.

And too bad if the double world champion joins a team (slightly) less prominent than Alpine.

Aston Martin has just had two very complicated seasons.

“As long as the places are blocked in the three top teams, RedBull, Mercedes and Ferrari, it does not matter.

You don't base your career choices on a team's ranking.

Aston Martin is in the process of creating a new factory, something quite rare, and the team demonstrates the ambition of its means.

Behind the team, what attracted Fernando Alonso is the project, ”abounds the former boss of McLaren.

Fernando Alonso wants to be at the heart of the project, which he was not really at Alpine with a contract offer of only one year, when Esteban Ocon's contract is locked until 2024. At Aston Martin, his teammate should not overshadow him since Lance Stroll is better known for being the son of the team boss, Lawrence, than for his performance on the track.

His experience as a double world champion, and the reconstruction of the team, will allow him to quickly have influence at Aston Martin.

Volcanic character

A project in which he no longer found himself at Alpine, a year and a half after his retirement.

“The people responsible for his return to F1 at Alpine, Alain Prost, Marcin Budkowski and Cyril Abiteboul, and who motivated him, are no longer there.

The major cleaning at Alpine in the winter of 2021 did not please him, ”says the journalist.

Because beyond the pure performance - he won't win a title anyway without being in a top team - Alonso is in the affect.

“To sum up, Alonso is one of the greatest talents in the history of F1, he is one of the very best drivers, and one of the greatest champions.

But he also has a volcanic character and he can somewhat fall into the caricature of himself, ”recalls Loïc Chenevas-Paule.

His departure from Aston Martin may be an opportunity for him to reset the counters.

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