F1 | Fernando Alonso, the last knight of risk…

Is it boredom or passion? Is it love or transgression? Oxygen or escape? Fernando Alonso is no longer just the well-known F1 champion, but for some time now he has been the man of two (and more) worlds, the last true risk taker, a driver bold enough to leave his comfortable doghouse in carbon from Formula 1 single-seaters to embrace a more real danger, which caresses and makes the skin vibrate; be it the walls of Indianapolis with an Indy single-seater, or those of Daytona with a prototype.

But Daytona wasn't enough, couldn't be enough. There is no whim where there is a plan, the worm is a crown, triple, to be worn and flaunted as revenge on the suffocating Formula 1, the category that launched it, loved it, but also in some ways marginalized, letting his talent was devalued in the unflattering mid-line battles.

The most caustic and severe criticism accuses him of a healthy dose of opportunism. Go and do Le Mans with your butt in the only LMP1 left, the Totyota, you like to win easy. Arguable reasoning, if it weren't for the fact that Alonso has been chasing the Hunaudières for years, since there were Porsche and Audi, when the Mare would have welcomed him with open arms if it hadn't been for the veto imposed on him by Ron Dennis, the team principal with quite classic.

Between so much bad luck, the world championships lost at the last race and Honda's sporting drama, including the broken engine in Indianapolis when he was preparing to prepare for the sprint, Fernando's real fortune is having found an enlightened manager like Zak Brown, a true enthusiast, who encourages his rider to undertake new challenges.

The character of the Asturian champion remains multifaceted, the lights of the champion will always be counterbalanced by the shadows of a polemical spirit, the fortunes and misfortunes remain entirely his own work, but as enthusiasts we can only raise our hands: you remember in the past recently an F1 driver simultaneously involved in another world championship of such a high level? The only precedent is that of Nico Hulkenberg, a privateer at Le Mans in 2015 between two world champion GPs. And the German was praised from the rooftops for his feat in endurance racing. Alonso dared even more, committing himself to the entire prototype championship. While not giving up (at least in words, the facts tell of an Everest to climb) from the goal of a third title in F1, and hoping for at least a "brilliant" McLaren-Renault, Nando in this period broke his kidneys on the Toyota simulator to prepare for the WEC adventure. All after spending the winter break preparing for Daytona.

Those who see these attitudes as a disengagement from F1 will turn up their noses, but this nose should remain straight in the face of so much passion. This Alonso 2.0 is no longer the "dark and grim" top driver (cit. Montezemolo) in a constant relationship of hate and love with the highest category. The Spaniard, with his versatility, his flexibility, his joy of racing, is a hymn to true motoring, it is the multifaceted ingenuity of Ulysses that has rediscovered his Ithaca. That is, competing always and everywhere, like a runner from times gone by. Everything needed for a motorsport that is increasingly slave to form despite substance. Well done Fernando, get on the gas!

Antonino Rendina

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