Alonso 'does everything he can to destroy his rivals'
Fernando Alonso has been talking about the ways that he seeks out and exploits every possible advantage over his rivals on and off the track.
The two-time world champion has been conspicuously adroit in coming up with unusual but very effective strategies to give him the upper hand this season while racing with Alpine.
That's included using practice sessions and formation laps to clear key sections of the track in readiness for overtaking moves he has planned for the race, a tactic which proved particularly effective at the start of the French GP.
“He just has that killer instinct,” Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack of Alonso told his team's website this month after the announcement that Alonso would be driving for them in 2023.
“No matter what, you know that Fernando will always give you everything: always push 100 per cent, always extract the maximum from the car and the team," he explained.
"His race craft is exceptional – a formidable combination of confidence, instinct and intelligence."
In a recent exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Alonso said he was especially pleased by these moments - and also when they were noticed and appreciated by others.
“I need to make 100 per cent of my thing and I need to kill whatever strengths other people have," he said. "But this I do in everything I practice, when I play anything.
“It's not only on racing I just need to destroy the strengths of the others, and try to maximise mine.
“I used to play tennis, and when I play with someone good, I would put the ball very high," he explained. "Like this, you stop the rhythm of them because they are used to hitting the ball very hard.
“Playing with professionals, the ball arrives very strong for them so they are used to that kind of shot," he said. “But when you put the ball high, they make mistakes because the ball arrives very soft, so I can play better tennis.
“Putting the ball high is my only chance to beat them so I do that automatically," he added.
At 41 and the oldest driver on the grid by some margin, Alonso said that this was something that only got more instinctive as the years went on and he got even more experienced after 346 Grand Prix starts since 2001.
"I don't feel that I'm missing anything that I had when I was younger," he stated. "Experience for sure helps in many ways.
Alonso singled out greater knowledge of how to handle the start of the race, tyre management, pit stops and general awareness as key aspects, as well as the way he engaged with the mechanics.
"Also the way you approach the weekend: free practice, the importance of it, the non-importance of it sometimes," he said. “When you're young, you pay so much attention to every lap you do - even FP1 is like the final lap of the championship.
“[But] not every lap is the last lap," he insisted. "These kinds of things I used to make mistakes, early in the races that now I try to avoid. And this only comes with experience and with your own mistakes.”
Alonso has already retired from Formula 1 once when he left McLaren to spend two years competing full-time in sportscars, and he reckons that's played a significant role in his renaissance since returning to the sport.
"In 2018, I felt that I was exhausted mentally by all the marketing and traveling and things like that and I needed those two years out.
“Now I feel okay," he said. "I don't know if it is just those two years that helped me out or it's just a different approach that I have now.”
He suggested that watching races from a more removed point of view has contributed to his new approach in the cockpit since returning.
"The different categories that I drove I think they teach me different things," he stated. "There are different philosophies of racing, different driving techniques.
"It’s not only your own cockpit and your own strategy," Alonso said. "You don't understand sometimes different things and different behaviours of the race.
"Looking from the outside and looking at 360 degrees ... maybe I have a better understanding of how the race develops," he suggested. "In a way, I feel more in control of things now.”
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