Formula 1 fans overestimate the significance of the role played by drivers in winning races, says Fernando Alonso.
The two-times world champion believes many fans don’t realise drivers cannot win races if their car is not competitive enough.
Alonso has gone 12 years without winning a race. The 43-year-old’s best chance of ending his victory drought may rest on whether Aston Martin can produce a competitive car for the new regulations which will arrive next year.
“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,” said the Aston Martin driver in today’s FIA press conference.
He and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg were asked whether the new fans attracted to F1 by Drive to Survive and the new movie should expect to see experienced drivers such as them winning races next year.
“If next year Nico and myself have winning cars 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,” said Alonso. “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 a result, we just try to share it with them and our fans around the world — but they are not in our priority.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Alonso stressed he did not intend to be “rude” towards fans of F1. “We love the fans but we don’t think about [whether] they realise how good or bad we drive. That is more for the team and the technical aspect of the sport, I think.”
“We only try to win races, try to work with our team the best we can, and deliver the performance,” he added.
With McLaren increasingly untouchable in the constructors’ championship and either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris likely to win the drivers’ title, Alonso believes most drivers and teams are now prioritising next season.
“I think 80% of the focus is already on 2026, in a way,” he said. “Not only on the engineers and the design team, it’s also the driver’s head, apart from maybe the two McLaren drivers.
“The rest of us, we are just thinking a little bit and dreaming about what could be a good season next year, because this year is going to change very little, I think, in the second part.
“It is fun to see all the midfield so close and maybe there is some action between all the midfielders in the second part of the season and it will be a fight for fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth in the constructors’ championship. But apart from that I think there is not much more to do.
“We’ll try to learn, keep improving, try to work with the team in the best way possible. And as I said, in terms of points every two or three weekends, try to see the constructors’ championship and have some fun there.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Belgian Grand Prix
Browse all 2025 Belgian Grand Prix articles