Fernando Alonso doesn’t care what F1’s “next-generation fans” think of him

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso says he doesn’t care what Formula 1’s “next generation” of fans think of older drivers like him and Nico Hulkenberg.

Having made his grand prix debut back in 2001, Alonso will be 45 years old by the time his current contract with Aston Martin expires in 2026.

The Spaniard has been a huge part of F1 this millennium and famously beat Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher to win back-to-back titles in 2005 and ‘06 with Renault. 

While at one point he grew disillusioned with F1 and left the series after 2018 to pursue other interests, he returned two years later with Alpine and has been an important part of Aston Martin’s fledgling team since 2023.

While he hasn’t won an F1 race in more than a decade, his last victory coming with Ferrari in 2013, the onset of new regulations next year could propel the Honda-powered Aston Martin to the front.

Hollywood has also cast a spotlight on veteran drivers this year, with Brad Pitt’s F1 film featuring his character Sonny Hayes coming out of retirement to mentor a rookie.

However, at a time when F1 is drawing a wave of younger fans who never saw him at his peak, Alonso insisted he is not concerned about whether they value his continued presence on the grid.

“Actually, [Hulkenberg and I] both don’t care too much about what the next-generation fans think,” he said.

“We only try to win races, try to work with our team the best we can, and deliver the performance.

“The fans and the people outside watching TV, they don’t have the full picture of what is going on and the difference in performance between the cars.

“So, if next year Nico and myself have a winning car and we win eight consecutive races and fight for the championship, then they will think that we ate something different in winter or had a different training programme and we learned how to drive in the winter.

“This is not really the reality. We train every day, eat every day, travel every day, go to the simulator every day. We try to be better and better every day with our teams.

“When we achieve the result, we just try to share it with them and our fans around the world — but they are not in our priority. And it cannot sound rude to anyone — we love the fans — but we don’t think about of if they realise how good or bad we drive. That is more for the team and the technical aspect of the sport, I think.”

Sauber’s Hulkenberg is also among the oldest drivers on the grid and scored his first podium at the age of 37 in the British Grand Prix in July.

The German also stressed that there are other factors that determine who gets to stand on the podium at the end of an F1 race.

“I think there’s no correlation between the movie and between experienced drivers or older drivers and recent results,” he said.

“It just always happens circumstantial — what your relative car performance is, how your weekend goes. We just came out on the right side of it [at Silverstone]. 

“But it could be very different here this weekend. It’s different every time, and you just try to optimise and maximise what you have, like Fernando says.”