It has been a trying start to the F1 2025 championship for Alonso, whose campaign began with a run of eight races outside the points.
It’s been his worst start to a campaign since his infamous “GP2 engine” 2015 with McLaren where he scored his first point at race nine, having missed the season-opening Australian GP due to a concussion suffered in a pre-season crash.
That year, he scored 11 points in total and finished the championship down in 17th place.
But while this season also began slowly, Alonso has picked up momentum with back-to-back points in Spain and Canada, taking the chequered flag in seventh place last time out to bring his points tally to eight.
However, his 12-year wait for his 33rd career victory shows no sign of ending any time soon.
He isn’t listening to the naysayers asking whether the time has come for the 43-year-old to hang up his helmet as the “paddock” knows his worth.
“And now you see some drivers frustrated at finishing P5 three or four times, but they’ve never been knocked out in Q1 or blown 12 or 13 engines in a single season and those things.
“You have to be mentally strong. This sport is extreme in that sense and beyond driving, you’ve got to be resilient and always keep your morale up.
“Of course, we all want to prove ourselves, and when the car doesn’t deliver… but those are mostly outside voices.
“In the paddock, anyone you ask has it clear — they can name a top-five driver list in one second.
“But outside, new fans or those who only follow F1 a bit or just look at stats, they see the wins and assume those who win most are the best – and not everyone in the paddock agrees with that.”
Formula 1 moves onto the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone as the next back-to-back events on the calendar.
Alonso concedes the Austrian Grand Prix may not suit his Aston Martin AMR25, but he’s hopeful for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as Aston Martin will bring upgrades to their home race.
“Silverstone has me curious, to see how the car behaves there with fast corners — especially being the home GP with the factory nearby,” he said. “I think Austria might be a bit tougher.
“Of the next double header, Silverstone is where we have more hopes and where we expect to bring some new parts.
“But like I said, both in Barcelona and here, Saturday was better than the race and that’s something we need to analyse.”
Alonso has one more season on his current Aston Martin contract, with the Spaniard set to continue in 2026 when F1 resets with all-new cars and engines.
For now, Alonso says he’s not thinking about retiring but he acknowledges that the “stopwatch” will be the deciding factor.
“You need to feel it when it’s time and I don’t feel it yet. I jump in the car and I’m on the grid, and I’m just so happy to be there and motivated and performing well,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the stopwatch will tell me also when I have to stop.
“Or I have a physical condition that is bad, or I have pain driving or whatever, that could happen as well. Sometimes you get a little bit injured, you get some bad races.
“But if we keep it healthy and in good conditions, the stopwatch also will tell me one day that I don’t feel fast enough or I don’t feel that I can put the lap together. But so far, I’m happy with that.
“I’m happy when I’m on the grid. When I finish the race on Sunday, even if the results are not nice at the moment, I’m so motivated to go to the next race and try to overcome the bad race and have a better one.
“So all these kind of things are very alive now, but there is no guarantee that this will be forever.”
