Alpine has been in the news this season a lot, mostly for the wrong reasons. Fernando Alonso, one of the legends of the sport will leave them at the end of the season. 

The Spaniard is one of the modern greats of F1. Known for having bucket loads of talent, he was a title challenger in his early years in F1. The 41-year-old has amassed 2039 points over his long career.

He won 2 world titles when he raced for Renault in 2005 and 2006. Surely they were his peak years. But he has had good years post that too, as he raced for Ferrari.

Fast forward to today, the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix was his 350th race start. Sadly, it didn’t go as Alonso would have hoped. Due to an engine failure, he couldn’t complete one of the most important races of his career.

After the heartbreak, he posted on Instagram, “It hurts again to think that in one of my best years in performance, we have lost more than 60 points because reliability issues. But the positive and most important in this 2022 was to come back to the best level, so I’m sure beautiful things are coming.”

Alonso is currently at 59 points. Going by his calculation, he should’ve been at 119 points. Just for academic purposes, that score would put him at P7 (from current P9), just above Lando Norris.

Alonso’s frustration is understandable as car issues have plagued the Alpine campaign this year. In Austria, Alonso couldn’t take part in the sprint race, as they had power issues in the car. Later, Esteban Ocon faced issues at Silverstone due to problems with the fuel pump.

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Alonso is a two-time world champion. His character and winning mentality are still undefeated, even though he no longer drives for the best teams on the grid. That shows the quality of the driver.

Fernando Alonso wanted stability, Alpine didn’t have enough

Alonso is leaving the French manufacturers as he makes his move to Aston Martin. Given the legacy that he brings to the team, one would think Alpine would’ve tried their best to keep him with them.

But the story behind his move is quite the opposite. Alonso was more than willing to stay, as he said in July, “​​​​I would like to stay here, but there are two parties and I will not put a gun to the head of anyone.”

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However, as soon as Sebastian Vettel retired, he took the offer Aston Martin made him.

He said “We were moving around in different things [with Alpine] and we were not maybe agreeing on the principles. It’s not only what you agree in terms of the duration of the contract, it’s also the trust you feel and how you feel wanted in a place.”

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Alonso will leave Alpine post-2022 season to join Aston Martin, a team that itself is trying to find its bearings. The recently formed team would love his experience and would be hoping success comes along soon.