7
votes
Fernando Alonso announces departure from Formula 1 for 2019
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- Title
- McLaren Formula 1 - McLaren confirms Fernando Alonso decision
- Published
- Aug 14 2018
- Word count
- 561 words
My favorite racer of the last 20 years. He had a very good career. He was on the losing side of some close (and exciting) championships. He made miracles with cars that should not have fought for victories. He was always the faster pilot in any given team, except for Lewis at McLaren. They were very close performance wise and it would have been fun as a fan to see them fight more on the track, but he saw that the team would prefer Lewis so he left. He will always have a special place in my heart.
He does leave room in his statement for a return, which'd be a lot of fun. Button was my favorite from that era, but you could really tell that he was absolutely over it by 2016. Alonso, on the other hand, seems like he'd be back in a second if someone gave him a car that could fight.
It wasn't the least likely thing in the world -- “I made this decision some months ago and it was a firm one" is a pretty telling quote -- but dang. Now Kimi will be the last guy left from the V10 era.
Bit of a bummer. I was never a huge Alonso fan, but I'd be the first to admit that his record of wins doesn't do justice to his talent. On the bright side, I guess it'd be more of a bummer to have a seat that could be taken by new talent be occupied by a dissatisfied long-timer. Admittedly, whenever he was on the radio complaining about being 11th (broadcasters' edits to his radio aside), I couldn't help but think of recent departures like Wehrlein.