Why Fernando Alonso ‘doesn’t care’ about next-generation F1 fan opinions

Fernando Alonso responded to thoughts newer Formula 1 fans may have if he or Nico Hulkenberg were to take to the top step of the podium in future.

Alonso has been looking to add to his tally of 32 wins in Formula 1 since 2013, while Hulkenberg earned his first career podium in the series at Silverstone in July, with the two-time World Champion admitting that, while they appreciate the fans, the team comes first in their thinking.

Fernando Alonso: ‘We only try to win races’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Given the time between his most recent victory and the success of Drive to Survive on Netflix, newer fans of the sport will be unlikely to have experienced Alonso winning races in real time.

A portion of the F1 movie plot was put to Alonso, with Brad Pitt’s character, ‘Sonny Hayes’, referenced as an experienced driver looking to gain success, and he was asked if the newer generation of Formula 1 fans could foresee him getting back to winning ways in future.

Alonso, though, is more concerned about the opinions of his team, but emphasised his “love” of Formula 1 fans around the world.

“I don’t think there is a straightforward answer,” Alonso told media including PlanetF1.com.

“Actually, I don’t think Nico… or think we both don’t care too much about what the next-generation fans think. We only try to win races, try to work with our team the best we can, and deliver the performance.

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“The fans and the people outside watching TV, they don’t have the full picture of what is going on and the difference in performance between the cars.

“So, if next year Nico and myself have a winning car and we win eight consecutive races and fight for the championship, then they will think that we ate something different in winter or had a different training programme and we learned how to drive in the winter. This is not really the reality.

“We train every day, eat every day, travel every day, go to the simulator every day. We try to be better and better every day with our teams.

“When we achieve the result, we just try to share it with them and our fans around the world — but they are not in our priority. And it cannot sound rude to anyone — we love the fans — but we don’t think about if they realise how good or bad we drive. That is more for the team and the technical aspect of the sport, I think.”

“I’m not sure I understood the question properly,” Hulkenberg, sat alongside Alonso, added, “but I think there’s no correlation between the movie and between experienced drivers or older drivers and recent results.

“It just always happens circumstantial — what your relative car performance is, how your weekend goes. We just came out on the right side of it [at Silverstone], but it could be very different [in future].

“It’s different every time, and you just try to optimise and maximise what you have, like Fernando says.”

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