Opportunities for young drivers unfairly distributed, says Alonso
At 40 years old, Fernando Alonso is one of the oldest drivers on the current Formula 1 grid. Only Kimi Raikkonen (41) is older. The Spaniard is therefore driving with a completely new generation of Formula 1 drivers, for which he has high praise.
Love for Verstappen
Alonso's fondness for Max Verstappen has been known for some time. He recently admitted that during his two-year absence from Formula 1, he mainly turned on the TV to see what the Dutchman would do in the race. In Hungary, he kept Lewis Hamilton behind him for as long as possible to not only help teammate Esteban Ocon to victory but also provide an advantage for Verstappen.
But Verstappen is not the only driver of the new generation that Alonso is looking forward to."It's definitely a good time for the sport now, the new generation is talented and prepared," the Alpine driver told FormulaPassion.it. Here he points especially to George Russell, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly. He also points to 17 year old supertalent Theo Pourchaire who will test for the first time this week in an Alfa Romeo.
Competitive car
According to Alonso, the current level of many young Formula One drivers is due to the teams' junior programmes. "The academies help them in all the different categories, they have all the tools and engineers to do well when they get to Formula One." Still, some drivers have a bigger advantage than others, coming into Formula One at a bigger team than others.
"Just look at Lando [Norris] and George [Russell]," Alonso explained. "They are both young and talented, but one is fighting for the podium and the other is struggling to score points. And that's a bit unfair." Leclerc also saw the difference. "As long as Ferrari had a competitive car, we thought the he could lead the next generation. Now the car is not so strong and maybe we think differently, but also today his performance is related to that of the car."
Do most F1 fans cheer for their favourite drivers or cheer for the team they are driving for? Correct me if you think differently, but apart from perhaps Ferrari Tifosi fans, I would say the majority of us fans cheer for our favourite drivers and will continue to cheer for them even if they move teams. If that being the case, then perhaps F1 cars should be more like F2 and many other categories of racing with all drivers racing in virtually identical cars in controlled chassis and mechanicals. The drivers talents then would result in winning races when the cars performances are equal. We want to know the ranking in the Drivers Championship. The only people really interested in the Constructors Championship are the team bosses themselves.
Indeed, for fans it would make lots of sense to have identical cars, but then, the big brands won't be that interested and F1 is a team sports at the end of the day. The budget cap and technical specs are meant to equalise the pack to some extent
Although Ocon is not mentioned in this article, F1 could do no better than looking at the sacrifices he and his family had to make to get a foothold into F1... It takes the HAM story and adds a few further twists... It may be that the FIA is now really looking to ensure that the talent pool comes from the most diverse group as possible, now that Lewis continues to lead the way on this. But it does cast a light on those privileged few who paid their way into F1. Only one of which I consider arguably to be decent... If you did not have the following cash cow drivers in F1 over the past few years imagine how much real talent could have come through (such as Callum Illot - Ferrari etc.). Staggering when you look at the list of recent pay to drive drivers: Sergio Pérez (okay... so he is talented), Nasr, Haryanto, Maldonado, Stevens, Palmer (great technical analyst though!), Sirotkin, Ericsson, Stroll, Latifi, Gutiérrez, Mazepin and I will have missed a few too. And before anyone jumps on the post to say that without these pay drivers then teams may have ceased to be... yes, I get that, but I am just looking at it from an upcoming talent obstacle that is clearly blocking the road of some future wannabe's.
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