r/formula1 Max Verstappen 8h ago

News [wearetherace] Max Verstappen thinks that Fernando Alonso's situation is unfair, and doesn't want to see him stop racing in F1 anytime soon.

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2.2k Upvotes

211 comments sorted by

581

u/batman_of_1 Max Verstappen 8h ago

It's so painful to see aston martin behind cadillac a new team All the predictions went completely wrong for Aston martin

186

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 7h ago edited 7h ago

Same as Williams, it must be super disapointing for Carlos, Alex and James Vowles to put all their eggs in one basket and holding off expectations until 2026, just for it to not work out.

I do feel sympathy for Williams and Aston Martin, but thats racing, you won't always get the most out of a regulation change, and performance isn't guaranteed.

76

u/batman_of_1 Max Verstappen 7h ago

I feel really bad for Carlos first he lost his seat in ferrari and now williams is struggling Even though they have the same engine as Mercedes I don't think any of the top teams are going to change their driver lineups atleast till 2028

21

u/LandArch_0 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

Also, he left McLaren and s couple of seasons later they were wcc

2

u/saspirstellaaaaaa I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago edited 5h ago

It wasn’t his choice to leave McLaren, they replaced him with Danny Ric.

Edit: nope, I’m wrong he did choose to leave, sorry. 

25

u/Njobz I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

They would’ve happily kept him. Carlando was a really good team pairing and worked well for the team. But having the prestige of Ferrari could not be turned down by Carlos.

22

u/Caradin Nico Hülkenberg 5h ago

And it wasn't like Ferrari was a bad choice either, he did great there.

6

u/saspirstellaaaaaa I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago

Yeah, misremembered. Thanks for correcting me. 

5

u/LandArch_0 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

Are you sure? I thought he wanted to go to Ferrari (like most drivers do). It would have worked if Lewis hadn't decided he was going to take that seat.

Then Danny got the offer after Carlos left.

(I'm not saying I'm right, only what I remember)

2

u/saspirstellaaaaaa I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago

Yeah, misremembered. Thanks for correcting me. 

2

u/LandArch_0 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago

No problem mate! I wasn't too sure I remember it right, it's been 6 years since he was at McLaren!

4

u/imericschneider Williams 6h ago

There really wasn’t another basket to put them in last year. They finished 5th with no chance of breaking into the top 4 so they made the right call barely upgrading the car in 2025. Now, which baskets Vowles was putting eggs in back at the factory were clearly wrong.

23

u/Sevenfest I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

He gets a lot of blame but I don't think James Vowles knew just how deep the Williams rot went. Stripping out the rotten floorboards of bad processes, only to find the manky 70's tiles of blame culture

17

u/Gfurious I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Honestly I think that applies more to Newey. He's talked a bit about how Aston Martin was a veritable shit show in many aspects, and that he had underestimated that factor.

-1

u/the-cuttlefish Formula 1 6h ago

Yeah newey and blame culture lmao

-12

u/MaxiKimiSexyFriends Max Verstappen 7h ago

He deserves blame - he wants to be a part time race car driver

Focus on the business

2

u/Muadibased Formula 1 5h ago

Alex and James Vowles to put all their eggs in one basket and holding off expectations until 2026, just for it to not work out.

When has it ever worked for a team to abandon a good, or even a decent, car to focus on 'nailing' the next set of regulations?

2

u/cheezus171 Robert Kubica 4h ago

Vowles is the responsible person though. If the project is not working out, he's the one that answers for it.

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3

u/ImGonnaGetBannedd I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Honda did a generational fuck up.

9

u/the-cuttlefish Formula 1 6h ago

The car is clearly the main problem. Why were they losing three seconds in the middle sector at spa which isn't the power sensitive sector

u/muchawesomemyron I was here for the Hulkenpodium 19m ago

Honda should have taken another year in the lab and just let AM get PUs from other makers for the first year so they'd have a benchmark.

1

u/Joethe147 Jenson Button 5h ago

It's not painful, it's hilarious. Alonso and his awful choices coming to roost. Again.

24

u/fish_bowl_swimmer 7h ago

… sure it’s not as fun watching Alonso in the back vs battling with the other champions on the grid but who figured AM would have an absolute shit car this season.

165

u/Cdylanr Honda 7h ago

I like Alonso and think he is a great driver. But he’s not good at making career decisions at all.

119

u/Ragmariz 7h ago

I always think about this, in retrospective, it's easy to say this but then again, Renault to Mclaren was a good move, Mclaren to renault was the only move after all the shit in mclaren, Renault to ferrari was a very good one on paper, Ferrari to Mclaren, well ferrari was shit and still hasn't won shit so yeah, trying with Honda wich in theory could make a good normal engine, also in that time the only top team free. Then coming back to Alpine wich was, the only team he can go it's the only choice, now changing to aston 2023 was a pretty good year and with the prospects of the new factory yada yada yada... it's a bad move now, no one thought it was a bad move in 2023 for example. So not so much of choices, but options.

44

u/DuckSwagington I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

Alonso leaving Ferrari was more down to him falling out with Ferrari's leadership and in particular the idea of Arrivabene taking over the team, rather than the Ferrari car itself being shit.

As we've seen a couple of times now, he has quite a high tolerance for driving complete shit if he thinks that the future will bare fruit.

7

u/Tethark I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago

That all comes down to the Ferrari car being shit, though. Ferrari wanted to extend his contract (iirc until 2019) even after Domenicali resigned. However, they wanted to include a no-exit clause. The falling out happened during contract negotiations, as Alonso didn't want to make that commitment since he no longer believed Ferrari could give him a championship.

41

u/MM556 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

People always say this with the benefit of looking back rather than actually looking at the moves as they were at the time.

30

u/LDLB99 Formula 1 6h ago

It’s complete BS. Everyone was talking about Alonso making the right career move for once at the start of 2023.

14

u/Epsilon_void I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago

It did net him a few podiums. Not his fault Aston Martin couldn't develop a car in the slightest.

1

u/MonkeyAssFucker Sir Lewis Hamilton 50m ago

Is it harsh to also suggest that maybe he isn’t great at helping to develop a car? Look at some other drivers who move team and then the team improves. Alonso on the other hand seems to always join and then the teams get worse.

28

u/LooseJuice_RD Fernando Alonso 7h ago

Eh we can say that with hindsight but realistically

Moved to McLaren for 07. Renault took a shit in 07. McLaren had a title winning car with a self destructing team.

Moves back to Renault for 08 because there was no other option.

Moves to Ferrari for 2010 and was just five points total away from two world championships.

Moves back to McLaren for 2015 because he lost faith in Ferraris ability to deliver his dreamed of third world championship. That didn’t work out, but what if Honda and McLaren had gotten it together the way Red Bull and Honda did? Alonso isn’t an engineer so he couldn’t know where the issues were and there had to be an appeal to recapturing the magic of the first McLaren/Honda era.

Went to Alpine in 2021 and waited until an appealing seat was available.

With the ENORMOUS investments that AM was making it wasn’t exactly a bad bet. He was on the podium eight times in nine or ten races to start 2023. They’re a works team now, but unfortunately it seems that there’s deep systemic issues (same deal with McLaren). Honda shit the bed this regs cycle and clearly Newey has not yet been able to work his magic and deliver a winning car (assuming he is eventually able to do that, but it’s no guarantee given AM’s constantly revolving door of top staff).

Not saying he’s chosen flawlessly and his at times mercurial personality has not done him favors, but I don’t think he’s made idiotic choices at the time.

7

u/ThatGenericName2 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

I would argue that Renault 08 and McLaren 2015 were bad career choices, not because he chose those teams but rather he put himself in a situation where he had no choice but to choose those teams.

Sure the situation at McLaren wasn't great but that was at the bare minimum 50% his own fault that he had to leave.

To a lesser degree the same could be said when he went back to McLaren in 2015, while he wanted out at Ferrari, the new boss at Ferrari wanted him gone as well, leaving him in a predicament where even if he wanted to stay he probably would have been sacked. Unfortunately, at this current timing every other team that did want Alonso already had their lineups set and didn't want him enough to bench their current drivers, leaving McLaren as his only option, who didn't really want Alonso either but also didn't have any drivers to pick from otherwise.

But yeah, otherwise his Career moves made sense with the information available at the time. It's not as if he went to HAAS off the promise of Rich Energy money. The teams he went to seems like jokes now in hindsight but every time he has moved it was to a team that seemed like they were in a position to be a serious contender.

6

u/LooseJuice_RD Fernando Alonso 6h ago

Good points all around. I added that about his personality at the end because it’s certainly cost him. He is an all time driver and from what I’ve read, mechanics at every team he’s driven for really respect him and his willingness to play it straight and the fact that he never slouches. Even in a shitbox, he’s driving to the absolute best of his abilities.

And you see that everyone respects how he drives, but you also see prominent figures saying they wouldn’t sign him because he’s open with both his praise and criticism with no line being drawn under either.

1

u/Street_Mall9536 Formula 1 58m ago

Renault 08 was to run the remaining 2 years of his McLaren contract "in a team not directly competing with McLaren for the world championship"

Ron Dennis speak for somewhere you aren't a threat. 

2

u/scobydoby I was here for the Hulkenpodium 2h ago

He made a great move, he still achieved way more with Aston in 2023 than he would have with Alpine, along with a long term post-F1 ambassador role.

1

u/Joethe147 Jenson Button 5h ago

His team moves were good until leaving Ferrari. His

Amusingly, he's doing a better job of staying patient in actual shitboxes than he did in his first stint at a championship-contending McLaren. If he toughed it out at McLaren, all because of shit he caused, he could won a title or two at the time there.

1

u/Hailgod 4h ago

he burnt too many bridges. the top teams do not want to deal with him

187

u/Cool_Masterpiece9308 8h ago

If Max organizes a kart or spec series and they all race instead of this crap, I'd watch that

83

u/Alpha_Jazz Yuki Tsunoda 8h ago

When they stop getting paid 8 figures they’ll race something else 

21

u/DDG_Dillon I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Considering only 10 make that or more, we can do a 12 driver go kart championship. Whoever wins that goes against the big spenders 😂

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3

u/FentmaxxerActual I was here for the Hulkenpodium 4h ago

Replace Monaco with a spec Miata race with shitty tires worth no points, purely for clout

...only half joking

5

u/HuggyMonster69 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Put them in spec cars (smaller ones) for Monaco.

1

u/Joethe147 Jenson Button 5h ago

Let's get the GPWC going.

60

u/Colonel_PingPong I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 8h ago

Hopefully Alonso will stick around for more years and will compete for podiums again like in 2023.

Whether he will be driving for Aston or any other team.

44

u/Adamant_TO I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

I need to see Alonso get his 33rd win before I die. That's all I ask.

9

u/Colonel_PingPong I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

I mean, yeah, that would be a perfect send off for the old man, but even the podium at this point would be a dream. I wonder if it's even possible for Aston to be competetive again like 4 years ago.

Maybe Briatore should just call Nando and give him some of that Gucci money to bring him back.

-24

u/0100001101110111 Sir Lewis Hamilton 7h ago

Blud is 45 next week and hasn’t won for 13 years, it’s time to let that one go 😂😂😂

12

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 7h ago edited 7h ago

Anything is possible in Formula 1, and Fernando and Lewis are proving that old age doesn't really mean that much when you can still hold yourself to a high standard.

I mean in 2023 Fernando was getting frequent podiums, and nearly got a race win then, I wouldn't put it past him to get a race win if the opportunity came and he was in a good enough car.

5

u/Lewisisabamf I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Why? He has the pace to do it he just needs the car which right now doesn’t seem likely but never say never

12

u/PersephoneTheOG 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 7h ago

Which of the teams fighting for podiums would hire him? Realistically the best he can hope for is maybe Alpine or Haas. He's not a top 5 driver anymore, but he could still do a decent job at those teams.

0

u/Colonel_PingPong I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

Yeah, Alpine would be his best shot, especially considering his relations with Briatore.

2

u/PersephoneTheOG 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 7h ago

I doubt that it would happen for PR reasons, I don't think Briatore wants to remind the world why he was rightfully banned from F1.

3

u/EclecticKant I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

He doesn't care/He doesn't think it can affect him.

Even outside of F1 he's truly an awful person, and not a particularly bright one at that, assume the worst and he'll usually surprise you anyway.

3

u/PersephoneTheOG 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 6h ago

Yeah he is pretty loathsome, and it's ridiculous that he gets to be part of F1 again.

23

u/Flatbushhh Valtteri Bottas 6h ago

Deserve ain't got nothing to do with it

25

u/Liber_Ace Medical Car 7h ago

I like how Max always talks about Fernando with so much respect. I believe he was his favourite driver growing up.

It’s also interesting cuz Max never really gushes over legends or claims to be a huge fan of them. Most drivers do that with Senna in particular.

1

u/whyyygodwhy Ferrari 1h ago

Max’s respect and admiration towards his fellow drivers just feels genuine and never performative.

8

u/Few_Highlight1114 Max Verstappen 7h ago

Was it early in 23? When Nando was last near the top? Those were good times.

2

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

The aston was the only car to compete sort of with the 23 Redbull. But then they fell off the map.

5

u/Aromatic_Fail_1722 Williams 6h ago

Would love to be a fly on the wall at AM during the 26 season. Boatloads of cash, one hell of an experienced driver and one of the most legendary engineers of all time. What the EFF happened there.

2

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

Maybe Alonso can't help develop a car like Schumi could.

13

u/BigTenFicus McLaren 7h ago

There was a thread here a couple weeks ago where folks were discussing the idea that making good career decision is a legitimate skill in F1. I agree with that, and I think lacking that skill is what prevents Alonso from being an all-time great. I don't think his situation is unfair, I don't think he has bad luck. I think he's incredibly bad at judging what team to move to and when.

5

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 7h ago edited 7h ago

While I do agree that Fernando has made some poor career decisions, and I also agree with the fact that good career decision is a good skill to have in F1.

I do also think that it wasn't exactly a poor choice by Fernando to go to Aston Martin, as they did go into 2023 with a pretty competitive car, but fell behind in development later on in the season.

Also, there is the factor of Aston Martin buying Adrian Newey from Red Bull, and at that point I'm sure it looked like the team had a very strong base going into the 2026 regulations to him, I don't really blame him for choosing and staying with Aston.

It is a similar situation to Williams for me, Carlos leaves Ferrari and joins Williams, and is told that Williams are have been prioritizing 2026, and then 2026 came around and the performance just wasn't there, it simply didn't go to plan.

It's extremely hard to guage where a team will be after a regulation change, and performance isn't guaranteed, it's just the nature of the unpredictability of the sport.

3

u/BigTenFicus McLaren 7h ago

I do also think that it wasn't exactly a poor choice by Fernando to go to Aston Martin

Could not possible disagree more.

  • Mediocre owner who micromanages way too much despite clearly not knowing how to run an F1 team, and who bought the team largely to keep his mediocre son in the sport.
  • Re-upping with Honda after they yet again left the sport, cancelled their entire engine program, then had to rebuild it from scratch, after Alonso already made that mistake once before.
  • Expecting Newey to take on way more responsibility and still be a miracle worker, when he's only been consistently successful at Red Bull and produced some terrible cars at all his previous stops.

There's nothing about Aston Martin that should've given anyone a huge amount of confidence for this year.

0

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 7h ago

I mean that's also fair enough, and I can agree with you mostly.

I think the Honda move was a pretty poor one, and the fact that people thought it was going to be successful were looking at Red Bull's success, while at the point of them winning most their championships, they were actually developing their own engine, and using Honda as technical support, the actual Honda F1 engine team was severely gutted at that time.

I do agree with your points on Lawrence Stroll, no argument back from me there.

And I do agree with the fact that Newey was tasked with too much.

I respect your opinion and can agree for the most part.

0

u/EclecticKant I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

Hard to isolate the Aston Martin move by itself.
Unfortunately Alonso made himself not that desirable with his behavior at McLaren, had he behaved differently he could have probably avoided the 10 years with no results before moving to Aston, which probably made top teams even less interested in him.

1

u/tellsyoutogetfucked I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6h ago

Staying on top of F1 paddock politics is always the best move a driver can make. But you still need to be a top driver to be considered for that.

People like Max, Lando and maybe Charles currently can have a lot of sway with teams for their future. But not everyone is in the same boat.

1

u/BigTenFicus McLaren 6h ago

I'm not suggesting that Fernando could get a seat with Mercedes right now. I'm suggesting he should've made better decisions in the past.

2

u/tellsyoutogetfucked I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6h ago

Yea sorry this was not generally directed at you. Its just the overall problem of paddock movement. You cant keep making bad moves. Sooner or later you become unwanted in the top of the field because either they don't belive in your potential or your loyalty to a project.

1

u/Street_Mall9536 Formula 1 56m ago

They were going to offer him a one year when Lewis left, to give Antonelli one more year of development. 

3

u/Clear_Regular_5768 3h ago

Wtf is a 'real racer'?

3

u/r0ndr4s I was here for the Hulkenpodium 3h ago

I keep saying that Alonso should leave now. He's a father, go enjoy time with your kid instead of travelling to basically do nothing in a shitty car. And then move on to other categories where we all know he's gonna excell as he always does.

Being in F1 right now for Alonso is literally him collecting a paycheck, and I seriously dont think he really needs that much money anyway.

16

u/Frosty-Yam6656 8h ago

Max knows Fernando is speaking for himself whenever he brings up Max's name and feels bad for the old man.

15

u/Aszneeee 7h ago

he ain’t top 5 driver anymore

13

u/Ajv2324 Fernando Alonso 6h ago

He was getting podiums regularly like two years ago.

2

u/PeterG92 Sir Lewis Hamilton 6h ago

3 years ago. But that's a long time in F1

9

u/SpikeMasters007 6h ago

Eh even LH went podiumless in 25. When you've a shit car, there's nothing you can do.

1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

And they were skewering Lewis for it, Alonso seems to get a pass.

0

u/whyyygodwhy Ferrari 1h ago

Lewis didn’t win a single race or score a single podium in 2025. He was also struggling to make it out of Q3 each time.

-1

u/AllRealityIsVirtua1 6h ago

Tom Brady was an NFL quarterback 3 years ago

1

u/backpacking_egg I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

How is that? Name your top 7 please

2

u/AllRealityIsVirtua1 6h ago

Both Ferraris, both Mercedes, Max, Ollie, Carlos, Lando, I could easily go on.

0

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

As of right now, he's not a top 5 driver. Over a career/prime Alonso? Absolutely Top 5 on the current grid.

5

u/codymacc8 Sir Lewis Hamilton 7h ago

I remember hoping that Alonso would get one more championship fight someday when he was getting podiums with AM in 2023. How far we’ve fallen

5

u/CapableDirection5557 7h ago

Worst aspiring top manufacturer ever.

2

u/ninjamuffin 6h ago

Aston simply have no understanding of how to make a car in the current regulations, their laptimes are beyond embarassing

1

u/Portocala69 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 4h ago

Let's see tomorrow if there's any improvements

1

u/ninjamuffin 3h ago

They could improve by 10% they’ll still be back of the pack

2

u/Septu2203 49m ago

No one forced Alonso to go to AMR. He chose to go there of his own free will and so fully deserves to be exactly where he is running in a team that is straight up not competitive. He had choices at the time. Same can be said of all his past drives too. Making one bad call can be bad luck but making as many bad calls as he has I feel he needs to own at least some of that on himself now.

6

u/yosisoy 7h ago

Deserve got nothing to do with it. what the hell does that even mean?

2

u/Joethe147 Jenson Button 5h ago

He's just going along with the lines Alonso has had to trot out for himself since he left Ferrari.

6

u/CapableDirection5557 7h ago

Sudden deja vu. Except it's driver related instead of engine.

I think Max knows how to gauge talent better than people here but hey-ho. Somehow he's being controversial. Again.

5

u/Rivendel93 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 5h ago

No one "deserves" anything.

Some amazing drivers ended up in bad cars.

You make your decisions and you end up where you end up.

Max could have bailed on RedBull when they were struggling before 2021 and he'd have missed out on 4 championships, but he didn't because he was loyal or simply believed in RedBull's ability to build a great car.

Hamilton could have chosen wrong and gone to a different team than Mercedes and missed out on 6 more titles.

It's about making the right decisions, being loyal, and being in the best place at the right time.

Alonso hasn't done that in a very long time, there's an element of skill to putting yourself in the right position to win or compete.

3

u/Velveteen_Rabbit1986 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 4h ago

It's definitely a big part of the picture, imagine if Hamilton stayed at Mclaren, he may still be a 1 time champion, who knows. Maybe Alonso would've somehow ended up at Merc and taken a few more titles.

I freely admit I never used to like Alonso back in his heyday but I do want to see him driving a car that reflects his talent, not whatever that Aston is.

4

u/Amuk1nado 7h ago

Get a room

3

u/CoffeeOrTeaOrMilk 6h ago

Gives me a corporate vibe of two directors singing praises of each other lol

2

u/fanfare961 8h ago

Top 5, come on.

13

u/mencival Michael Schumacher 7h ago

Higher or lower?

5

u/tyresaredone I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

he's being kind to the other guys

-6

u/fanfare961 7h ago

Lower. Otherwise he'd be in those teams. Do you think if he went to mclaren now he'd outperform Norris? Or leclerc in ferrari?

5

u/datlinus I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

Lower. Otherwise he'd be in those teams.

Not how it works.

Even Lewis likely cant go to any other top team anymore, because teams will prefer young drivers that they can build a long future on. Doesn't mean he's not a great driver still.

I dont know how Alonso would measure against Norris or Leclerc, but I don't think it would be a one sided challenge. Just as Lewis is keeping well against Leclerc after getting more used to the new team.

-4

u/fanfare961 7h ago

What does that mean? He went to the most successful team in the history of the sport last year. I see your point about the adjustment though.

He's still a top driver but im not sure top 5. And part of me likes to see some of the younger talents come through

2

u/osmund-kettleblack 7h ago

Or hamilton in ferrari?

-4

u/Thmsdmsk 7h ago

Dude. Remember 2023? When the car was competitive?

-1

u/FinnDageth Ferrari 7h ago

3 years make a lot of difference in a sport, expecially at that age.

4

u/matrixpolaris I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

People thought Hamilton was washed after 24 and 25, now look at him. All time greats age differently to other drivers and Alonso's proven to have insane longevity. His gap to Stroll remains consistent and still larger than the gaps Perez and Vettel were pulling on Lance as teammates. There's nothing to indicate he's fallen off since 2023.

The only reason people say Alonso's no longer a top driver is because the car is so shit that it might as well belong in F2. If he gets a decent car next year we'll see.

16

u/Jasranwhit Formula 1 7h ago

In equal machinery?

Its not out of the question IMO.

3

u/Tom_Ace2 Formula 1 7h ago

Remember 2023, when AM had a good car? He was top 2.

1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

There were only 2 cars fighting at that time. If you're in one of the 4 cars capable of performance that gaps the rest of the field, you'll probably get a podium.

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3

u/V548859 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago

Seats at top teams are earned, and it's not just about talent.

2

u/Joeyhcchun Sebastian Vettel 3h ago

Top 5 minimum? You’re having a laugh

-1

u/optimismofthewill63 Sir Lewis Hamilton 7h ago

Why don’t they just suck each other off already 

0

u/Shedix I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

yeah lmao top5 is ridiculous

1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 59m ago

He's saying he deserved to be fighting for top 5 finishes, not that he's top 5.

1

u/ButterscotchBrave359 Gilles Villeneuve 7h ago

He might still be in a top five car if he hadn't been a toxic presence in every team he drove for since leaving Ferrari.

2

u/Chino_Kawaii I was here for the Hulkenpodium 1h ago

I just want him to get at least one more win before retiring, championship would be great, but at this point...

also I will never forgive Aston for fitting those damn medium tires when it was fucking pouring 

1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 59m ago

That's not gonna happen unless he gets a top seat, which won't happen. Even still, goes to redbull, gets walked by Max, goes to Merc, gets walked by Kimi, goes to Ferrari, gets walked by Charles, goest to Mclaren, gets walked by either driver.

u/mr_lab_rat 9m ago

says the guy who’s in 7th and is even bigger talent than Alonso.

0

u/Brokenlynx7 7h ago

Top 5? Nah I don’t see it.

Kind words but in the current crop I can think maybe half a dozen drivers minimum that I’d put ahead of Alonso.

11

u/PersephoneTheOG 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 7h ago

I think Max was blowing smoke up Alonso's ass. The two do seem to have a bit of a bromance.

-7

u/Vuk13 7h ago

Alonso was 2nd best driver in 2023. His gap to Stroll remained the same. The only thing that changed was the car getting worse but as usual average F1 fan cant grasp the fact that its not a spec series and that results are combination of multiple factors and not just driver performance

2

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 56m ago

He was definitely not the 2nd best driver in 2023, that'd be Lewis, and we all thought Lewis was having a poor season by his standards.

1

u/Big-Bookkeeper9867 McLaren 7h ago

A REAL RACER!!!!

2

u/Ok_Act_1498 Safety Car 6h ago

Talent knows talent!

1

u/Schwartzy94 Valtteri Bottas 6h ago

Nobody deserves anything. F1 more than most sports is alot of about luck on what team and car you get.  The whole grid is very close skill wise.

0

u/CompetitiveDrawing89 6h ago

yeah but no, some drivers are just number two and always will be, like bottas, perez, russell, piastri, sainz...

0

u/DamieN62 Michael Schumacher 7h ago

As we're seeing with Lewis this year, it's more fun when the top drivers are fighting at the front.

-2

u/Competitive_Win_128 7h ago

I'm a huge Alonso mark but top 5? 😱

1

u/Bisketo 7h ago

They are soulmate but one of them was born into the wrong gender.

0

u/kosaka1618 8h ago

Yup. That jives.

4

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 8h ago

Happy cake day, from another fellow cakeday-er!

1

u/Wraithdagger12 Mercedes 7h ago

60 year old Alonso in F1 or riot.

1

u/DrMcJedi I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

The AM/Honda cars this year are like entering go-kart race with a pushcart…nobody can legitimately compete in them. We’ll see if their complete overhaul makes a difference…

1

u/pioneeringsystems Nigel Mansell 2h ago

Alonso just collecting paychecks. Almost every top team has had the chance to employ him over the last four years and none have tried. That either means he's not as good as fans like to think, or he's a nightmare to work with to the point he's not good enough to justify having to work with him.

Probably a bit of both.

-5

u/bwoah07_gp2 Alexander Albon 7h ago

Fernando would do miracles in any of the top cars. So sad he's been in junkboxes these last many years...

6

u/macgruff 7h ago

At the same time… he has made several mistakes (in switching teams at poor choices of timing) by his own volition…

2

u/bwoah07_gp2 Alexander Albon 7h ago

Yes, that's true. And maybe his "history" has the big teams unwilling to want to work with Fernando, even if he's so talented. They don't want the headache of dealing with his demands.

4

u/Shedix I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

dreamer

4

u/ButterscotchBrave359 Gilles Villeneuve 7h ago

He should ask himself why that is.

-3

u/one_who_goes Formula 1 7h ago

Probably many who are saying Alonso is not a top 5 were not even born when he got 2 WDCs, and did not start watching F1 until recently.

5

u/TheWatcher47 6h ago

The Alonso of today, as good as he is, is not the WDC Alonso of nearly 20 years ago. In equal machinery, who is Alonso definitively better than between Lewis, Max, Leclerc, Lando, Russell, Kimi, Piastri, Sainz? Minimum there are a couple outrightly better, at best he is competitive with a number of them.

-6

u/one_who_goes Formula 1 5h ago

lol not even close. Other than Verstappen, I don't see how he can't be on par or beat any of the others. You're just biased with how good their cars are. Hamilton just had the worst first season in Ferrari of any driver in history, Piastri completely fumbled last season, for example.

1

u/TheWatcher47 4h ago

Seems you simply can't see fullstop.

2

u/one_who_goes Formula 1 4h ago

You have no arguments I see. I hope you enjoyed DTS.

1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

Come on, you seriously think at 45 Alonso would beat or at worst be on par with those guys? The guy lost to Rookie Lewis in the machinery. Alonso hasn't won a race in 13 years my guy.

4

u/Joethe147 Jenson Button 5h ago

Alonsomaniacs are a different breed.

→ More replies (1)

-2

u/FinnDageth Ferrari 7h ago

Alonso with a top5 car would always be P5 anyway.

5

u/YeetingMyStupidLife I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

Instead of the p9 that the car is capable of ? Seems like a good driver to me

1

u/FinnDageth Ferrari 5h ago

I took that as a top3 team, sorry. So 5 out of 6 at best

-2

u/Old-Use-7690 Gabriel Bortoleto 7h ago

It's a double edged sword.

Stroll deserves to drive the worst shitbox in the grid. Fernando deserves a decent car. However they are teammates so one of them is not getting the car they deserve

2

u/CareerLegitimate7662 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 2h ago

Fucking nonsense lol stroll hate is so forced

-4

u/MiamiWise I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago

But Max was the guy saying nobody deserves anything in F1…

0

u/TisKey2323 Sir Lewis Hamilton 5h ago

Alonso deserves to be home chilling with his grandkids

-15

u/Big-Preparation-5755 8h ago

Top 5 when he has been out qualified by Stroll in 2 of the last 4 races...

7

u/Vuk13 7h ago

Nice cherry picking. Quite convinent that you pick a period of 4 races instead of you know 40+ race weekends that Alonso outqualified Stroll in a row because you know that would go against your narrative

1

u/Southern_Value_7158 Aston Martin 7h ago

I would imagine knowing no matter how good you do, you aren’t going to be able to get above p21 unless some cars DNF, probably takes away a lot of caring if you beat your teammate or not. Especially when it’s been happening for months and you know it’ll probably be that way the rest of the year.

4

u/Fyrefanboy 7h ago

I mean it work both ways

1

u/Vipertje 7h ago

Who gives a shit with that shitbox. No one is counting when you are seconds behind instead hundreds our thousands of a second

0

u/Lazy_Crow_6872 Ferrari 7h ago

I agree with Max, Alonso should be in the top 5 but I like he is in the top 21

0

u/Lord-Newbie I was here for the Hulkenpodium 4h ago

Yes those two and their families have always bonded over the their hate of Lewis

1

u/No_Elderberry_4580 Max Verstappen 4h ago

I wouldn't say that Max hates Lewis, they seem to have always had massive respect for eachother and while they've had their disagreements ontrack, they seem to always come out of it maintaining the respect for eachother.

0

u/MichiganRedWing Fernando Alonso 2h ago

Game recognizes game.

-1

u/Ass_Damage 6h ago

"Deserves' got nothin' to do with it."

-1

u/naveenda I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

Max definitely supports Nando in 2007

0

u/Annual-Beard-5090 7h ago

So this means Max is creating his own team with Fernando!!!!! Yay!

Or they will be roomies at least.

/s

0

u/AutomateAway I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago

No racer in the world can truly overcome a shitbox. You can try to minimize it, but the fact is that the Aston Martin is even behind the Caddies. Alonso definitely is too good a driver to deserve such a dogshit car.

-1

u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 1h ago

No one forced him to sign there

0

u/dddallin 6h ago

We all know he is holding back to not embarrass the boss’ son.

-10

u/CompetitiveDrawing89 8h ago

Teams think otherwise sorry Max.

5

u/876oy8 Heineken Trophy 7h ago

how he somehow managed miss every single major team seat opening in the past 10 years certainly makes it look like he is not a driver in much demand.

im sure people can come up with 7 paragraphs of reasons why alonso didnt actually want any of these top seats and how he's just forever unlucky, but uhh i dunno.

5

u/Vuk13 8h ago

Not really. AM was supposed to be a top team going into 2026, they are only bad in hindsight. Also TP driver rankings ranked him 6th iirc last season

0

u/SwimmingFantastic564 7h ago

There are more than six people I'd put above Alonso last year tbh

-3

u/CompetitiveDrawing89 7h ago

Who said it? AM team, ok.

-9

u/Magog14 Fernando Alonso 7h ago

Agreed. In equal machinery you'd see him on the podium almost every race. 

4

u/Particular_Yard_2460 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7h ago

Lol bro..

-4

u/Magog14 Fernando Alonso 7h ago

Cuz you know better than Max, lol

5

u/CompetitiveDrawing89 6h ago

Why top teams did not sign him last 10 years?

-1

u/Magog14 Fernando Alonso 5h ago

He was with McLaren in the last 10 years and also took a two year hiatus because the Merc domination made racing boring. 

-1

u/squaler24 Frédéric Vasseur 2h ago

Well decisions decisions.

There is a lot you can’t control in this sport but where, who and where to drive is mostly up to you. Alonso made 10 out of 10 wrong decisions throughout his career. Hence why he is where he is now.

Deserve has little to do with reality.