Alonso talks ‘ego and balance’ amid surprising ‘stopwatch’ admission

Fernando Alonso had admitted that when he returned to the sport in 2021, the “stopwatch said I was a few tenths slower”.

But believing in himself, who knows, next season in the all-new Aston Martin designed by the legendary Adrian Newey, he could be a World Champion.

Fernando Alonso: ‘The stopwatch said I was a few tenths slower’

Having contested his first full season in Formula 1 in 2001, before going on to win the 2005 and ’06 titles with Renault, Alonso’s career was one of ups, downs and controversies that included stints at Ferrari and McLaren before he took a break after the 2018 season.

Out of the sport for 2019 and 2020, during which he tackled the Indianapolis 500 and the Dakar, Alonso returned to the grid in 2021 with Alpine, formerly known as Renault.

It was not the comeback he had dreamed of, as he finished his two seasons with the team with 81 points apiece, just inside the top ten, before swapping to Aston Martin, where he was an impressive P4 with eight podiums in 2023.

But even that didn’t last long as the team, building for the future, dropped down the order with one eye on F1 2026 and its all-new regulatory set.

For Alonso, though, it was more than just the team and the car, it was his own ability that initially came into question for the Spaniard.

Back on track in 2021, he admits the stopwatch made it clear that he’d lost a tenth and that it took him a bit of time to find it.

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“When I returned to F1, I thought I was at the same level as when I’d left two years earlier, but the stopwatch didn’t say that,” he admitted to DAZN.

“The stopwatch said I was a few tenths slower.

“I also had no answers on how to find those tenths; I was already at my limit.

“But it’s the cognitive system, something innate that we have and that you develop with practice, that when you have a break, you do a ‘reset’.

“You can’t have an ego because that’ll slow you down and won’t help you at all, but you do need a lot of self-esteem and confidence in yourself. That confidence has to be bulletproof. It’s hard to balance confidence and ego on a scale.”

With that self-confidence and belief back, Alonso heads into the F1 2026 already billed as one of the potential favourites as he’ll be driving a Honda-powered car designed by Adrian Newey. Honda has won four of the last five Drivers’ titles with Red Bull, while Newey was the designer behind those Red Bull-winning cars.

Alonso’s interview with DAZN came as 2019 World Champion Jenson Button praised the 44-year-old for managing to compete at the highest level at this stage of his career, but while urging him to pass the torch to the next generation – maybe even of Alonsos.

“I also think: ‘Fernando! Come on, mate‘,” he told Sky F1.

“I’d like to see him with a bunch of little Fernandos running around and then maybe they want to go karting and then he can continue the journey.

“It’s great that he’s still competing and he’s still so competitive.

“But for me, if my son or daughter jumped into a go-kart, that emotion would be probably more than winning a world championship, seeing them want to drive a car.

“Whether they do or not, I don’t really know. But that would be pretty cool.”

Alonso heads into the final year of his current Aston Martin contract in 2026, partnering Lance Stroll at the Silverstone-based team.

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