- Ah, happy days (Credits: bbc.co.uk)

Was Alonso right to leave F1?

Will this decision end up like his decision to move to McLaren

3y ago
3.9K

While millions of Formula 1 fans across the world sat refreshing Alonso's Twitter page, he was getting ready to make one of the most important announcements of his life: that he would be leaving Formula 1 at the end of the 2018 season. Most of the fans response was like that of parents whose kid is going off to college: sad that he's leaving, but happy that he's getting on with his life.

But after 17 long years in F1, was it a right decision? In short, yes. There didn't seem to be any point in him staying in the sport. None of the top three teams seemed to be interested in taking him on, and his situation could not really be improved much by moving to any other midfield team.

So it all falls down to McLaren's ability to improve in the coming seasons. While we were all hopeful at the start of the season, with Alonso coming 5th with a Renault power unit, his string of DNFs following the Monaco GP doused any hope we had remaining. Their 7th place in the championship does not justify McLaren's claims of having the best chassis on the grid. They can't blame Renault (like Red Bull has been doing) because none of Alonso's four retirements this year were caused by power unit reliability issues.

But one might argue that McLaren has improved as compared to last year. Maybe not as much as we had hoped, but improved nonetheless. They have already scored more points this year than they did in the entire 2017 season. Having Renault, a team who has set their minds on being one of the top competitors by 2021, as their power unit supplier can also turn out to be beneficial. At least Ricciardo thinks so.

Speaking of 2021, that leads us on to the matter of budget caps. Budget caps are the Manna that all the midfield teams have been praying for. While there is no doubt that the budget cap would benefit McLaren, it will also benefit all the other teams, with the exception of the top three. So there's no guarantee that McLaren would be any more competitive than they are today.

And even if they could be competitive, 3 years is a long time for someone to wait. Especially someone who has the skill and opportunity to win races elsewhere. Particularly someone who is close to the end of their career in motorsports. At 37 years, retirement is not far away for Fernando. And if I were him, I would want to spend the rest of my career winning, rather than complaining about a faulty gearbox.

Fernando had 'endured' a lot before he came to this decision. Get it? World 'Endurance' Championship. Sorry. (Credits-autosport.com)

Fernando had 'endured' a lot before he came to this decision. Get it? World 'Endurance' Championship. Sorry. (Credits-autosport.com)

And Fernando does have a lot of opportunities to win. Toyota Gazoo Racing, the team he drives for in the World Endurance Championship, is the only team with a hybrid car in their class. What that means is that the only competition he has is sister car. So as long as the car gets through the race, either first or second is guaranteed. He might also have an opening in Indycar, which is a series he's raced in (and failed to finish in) already.

Thank you for the memories. (Credits- cadenaser.com)

Thank you for the memories. (Credits- cadenaser.com)

Regardless of whether the decision was good or not, this certainly is, as Monica from Friends would put it, "an end of an era". Many F1 followers grew up watching Fernando battle Hamilton and keep Schumacher at bay, and fallen in love with the sport through him. Formula 1 has certainly lost one of it's greats.

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Comments (5)

  • Bravo Fernando!

      3 years ago
  • I have a sneaky feeling he might be back one day...

      3 years ago
  • F1 is slowly turning into expensive nancy entertainment. Don’t blame him, but I do blame the FIA & Liberty.

      3 years ago
  • I don’t blame him one bit. I look forward to seeing him do well in other formulas.

      3 years ago
    • Yeah, he was getting really frustrated. At least we got some funny team radios out of it

        3 years ago
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