Fernando Alonso was on the cusp of greatness today. With only Max Verstappen to beat, the Spaniard could have secured his 33rd Formula 1 victory. Alonso had waited ten long years for this chance. And as things turned out, he will have to wait a bit longer. Aston Martin did take a gamble on the strategy, which failed. However, even without that error by the Silverstone-based team, the pace of the AMR21 was off by quite a margin when compared to Verstappen and Red Bull.

Given the superiority of the Bulls, many have already written this season off. With Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez faltering once again, it seems as though the Dutch lion is well on his way to securing a third consecutive F1 title in 2023. This is the opinion of many, but it isn’t the opinion of Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso cites his glorious F1 career to defeat Verstappen

Alonso last won a championship in 2006. Since then, he’s been plagued with bad luck and bad decisions. Hurtful as it may be for him to reminiscence, in the moment of weakness today, he looked back upon those days to warn Verstappen of the fate he may have to suffer with the Spaniard hot on his trail.

After the race, where Alonso and his AMR21 could never quite match the pace of Verstappen and the RB19, Alonso chose to teach the media a history lesson. He was quoted as saying, “We weren’t faster in 2010 either and we arrived leaders in Abu Dhabi. We weren’t faster in 2012, but we arrived with title chances in Brazil.”

This may also have been a jibe at ex-Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel who won the championships in both 2010 and 2012. Even though Alonso was in a far inferior car to the eventual 4x champion, he gave him a run for his money till the bitter end.

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While Alonso has issued a warning to the defending champion, his camp is now well aware of the threat of an imminent Spanish inquisition.

Red Bull was surprised by Alonso

Coming into the Monaco GP weekend, Aston Martin was buoyant about their chances. However, many thought the principality would be the place where the dream run the British team had endured would end, including Red Bull boss, Christian Horner.

After the race, Horner expressed his amazement at Alonso’s fiery run. PlanetF1 quoted him as saying, “We knew coming into this weekend this was going to be our biggest challenge in the first half of the year, and the low-speed nature playing to the strengths [of others].”

“We actually thought Ferrari might be the main opponent, but Fernando has just been on fire all weekend. I mean, unbelievable.”

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Can Fernando Alonso stand true to his word and dethrone Max Verstappen in 2023?