Fernando Alonso maintains ‘I am the best’ despite a decade without F1 victory

Fernando Alonso has not lost any confidence in his ability despite not having a car capable of winning races for over a decade.

It would have been easy to assume that an underperforming Aston Martin would speed up Alonso’s retirement date but he has insisted he is as motivated as ever.

Fernando Alonso still ‘the best’ despite F1 win absence

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Not since the 2013 season has Alonso found himself in an F1 car capable of winning races, and even the signing of Adrian Newey to Aston Martin has failed to bring him back to the front of the grid as the team has struggled with various car issues.

From vibrations caused by the Honda power unit to gearbox troubles, the AMR26 is also lacking in downforce.

It has meant Alonso and his teammate Lance Stroll have yet to score points, and make up the final two positions in the Drivers’ standings.

At 44 years of age and with a newborn baby at home, there are always questions of what keeps Alonso going but he has insisted his belief in himself and his ability remains as high as ever.

Asked how he measures his performance when he is unable to compete at the top end, Alonso said he does not need to evaluate himself against anything.

“I don’t measure anything,” he said. “I’m the best. I don’t need to prove anything. I don’t need to feel anything to believe that I’m at the right level.”

On the motivation front, Alonso said that just because he is not at the front of F1 does not mean he is getting worse and he would only be concerned if he was slow elsewhere.

“If I go to a go-kart track and I’m not the fastest, then I will be worried,” he said. “If I go to a GT car and I’m not the fastest, I will be worried, and this kind of thing. Meanwhile, I’m doing that, and I’m still the fastest, so when I come to the Formula 1 weekend, it’s just a matter of time that I have a better car.”

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That matter of time may be shortened by the FIA’s granting of ADUO to Honda which is expected to come in the near future. That will allow the Japanese manufacturer additional budget to work on their power unit but Alonso has said bringing the engine up to speed will “take time.”

“It will help,” he said of ADUO. “We need need to raise the level, and we need to get better, and for that, you need investment, and you need more time than the others.

“You need more dyno, you need more people finding different philosophies to understand what is [causing] the lack of power and reliability that we found this year when we hit the engine for the first time, so it will help, it will take time, and we need to stay strong.”

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