After the highs of his first season at Aston Martin, 2024 was a demoralising year for Fernando Alonso. The team gradually lost contact with the front-runners and slipped into the midfield.
In the year he celebrated his 43rd birthday, Alonso was no less quick and committed than ever. His form dipped somewhat when the team began to struggle, though this proved temporary.The team enjoyed a decent start to the season. Alonso regularly qualified his AMR24 slightly higher than it deserved, and therefore slipped back in the race, but still took decent points finishes including fifth in Jeddah (ahead of both Mercedes, a Ferrari and a McLaren) and sixth in Japan.
That result in Jeddah proved to be the team’s best result of the year. Alonso achieved it by holding back George Russell, but he crossed a line attempting to do the same in Australia, slowing abruptly and early at high speed. The stewards correctly assessed the dangerous implications of Alonso’s tactics and issued him a stiff penalty. However their verdict on his tangle with Carlos Sainz Jnr in China – a clumsy but not cynical move – was harsh, and left Alonso justifiably concerned about his accumulation of penalty points.
The team’s season began to go awry in Miami, where Alonso nonetheless salvaged points again from 15th on the grid. But he was poor at Imola after crashing in practice, dropped out in Q1 at Monaco and had a puzzling off-weekend in Austria where he collided with Zhou Guanyu.
Fernando Alonso
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 3 | 20 |
| GP finish | 5 | 19 |
| Points | 70 | |
Surprisingly, Lance Stroll led Alonso home at Silverstone. They finished in the same order in Hungary, though that was after the team told Alonso to let his team mate through, and Stroll refused to give the place back when ordered to.
As Aston Martin drifted further from the pace, Alonso increasingly found himself occupying a ‘no man’s land’ between the four quickest cars and the rest (including his team mate). He continued to collect points fairly regularly, but the going got tough as the season entered its final quarter.
It said a lot about the difficulty Aston Martin experienced with their car late in the season that Alonso didn’t capitalise on the challenging conditions in Brazil. He showed his usual wet weather flair earlier in the season at Montreal, finishing sixth.
However Alonso rebounded to end the year on something of a high with points in the final two races. Aside from that early dip, this was another characteristically strong season, which gives F1’s most experienced driver every reason to believe he has another title in him.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
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grat
28th January 2025, 12:30
Heh. Lewis Hamilton gets 4 podiums, two wins, and finishes the championship 7th, and is rated 3 places below Alonso, who had zero podiums, and zero wins, and finished 9th.
Glad to see the driver rankings are still consistently overrating Alsono and underrating Hamilton. Frankly, I was surprised to see him in the top 10, given the usual “British bias” around here.
Rolfski (@rolfski)
28th January 2025, 12:50
You forget to mention that Aston Martin was way slower than Mercedes in 2024. Resulting in Fernando regularly overperforming his car where Lewis was clearly underperforming, especially in qualifying. That’s not to say that Lewis doesn’t deserve a higher place on the list. I probably would have ranked him eight or so.
grat
28th January 2025, 13:48
Oh… you’re one of those people who think a driver can extract 110% performance out of a car. They can’t. Perpetual motion machines don’t work either.
Alonso was consistently faster than Stroll, sure. But his performance was overall mediocre.
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th January 2025, 13:57
That is correct what you said but a driver can extract 100% from a car and wonder that isn’t what everyone can do…(even you )
This result isn’t about wins and podiums but more compaired with youor teammate and where the car is placed/ or belong which if you keep this in mind Lewis didn’t preform as he normal does. Also the OP could have some extra punt system where he award drivers with but that we don’t know…..
Davethechicken
28th January 2025, 19:35
No human can extract 100%, the task is too complex. None ever have and none ever will.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 14:22
Oh…you’re one of those people who thought Checo was the second best driver in F1 in 2023 and Seb was the best driver in F1 when he won four straight titles. Just admit this is either about you having something against Alonso (as at least 50% of Hamilton fans seem to). In your mind Alonso went from being ranked #2 in last season’s RF’s driver rankings to being behind Gasly, Hamilton and Hulkenberg presumably based on what exactly? Give us some precise data.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th January 2025, 19:52
It was absolutely insane that there were several people thinking perez had done so well in 2023, he was ranked last here, which isn’t really a biased site!
Wer
28th January 2025, 14:29
Of course they can’t. You’re correct.
Alonso extracted 96-100% out of his Aston Martin
Hamilton extracted 92-97% out of his Mercedes.
Does the math add up now for you?
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 14:45
I wouldn’t waste my time. He’s one of these people who have accused Mercedes of not giving Lewis any support or even actively working against him. In other words, he takes this personally and is unable to be objective.
Lewis
28th January 2025, 12:53
I think 10th was a bit harsh for Lewis, but these rankings are more about how consistently did the driver get the most
out of their equipment.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
28th January 2025, 12:54
I wouldnt get hung up on individual positions but if you want to know the position by stats the tables you quote are readily available. The view here is nuanced on car strength, how they did vs team mate, over qualifying the car, outdriving it. Pulling a rabbit out the hat basically. And ALL of it is subjective
Edvaldo
28th January 2025, 13:10
If this was about what was achieved during the season, what would be the point of a ranking instead of just looking at the points table?
I do think that it is difficult to rate Alonso because Stroll is too weak on the other car for us to safely say that Alonso never dropped the ball just because Stroll isn’t doing anything better than him, when in reality Stroll has barely ever done something better than his teammates in 8 seasons. And he’s at the bottom of this ranking even when what is expected of him is already pretty low.
Maybe the car is better than its results suggest, but Alonso is too old now, and Stroll simply doesn’t belong there. Who knows? What we do know is that he was best of the rest at 43.
anon
28th January 2025, 22:29
Edvaldo, this article does also highlight an element of how that does impact on the way that Alonso’s performances are viewed due to there being no comparable benchmark against which he can be held.
With most drivers in the field, there does seem to be an acceptance, and even an expectation of some element of fluctuation in their performances over the season, based in part on the relative comparisons between team mates and the perception that a driver could, and should, have done better in certain events or in certain circumstances.
With Alonso though, because that performance comparison is discounted, it means that most posters seem to, consciously or subconsciously, treat Alonso as having a constant performance and view the competitiveness of the car as being the thing that varies from race to race far more than any potential variation in Alonso’s own performances – whereas, with most of the other teams in the field, it’s the drivers that are seen as varying more in performance and the relative performance of the cars seems to be treated as relatively fixed.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:41
Good point, and we know this 100% performing on top doesn’t happen: imagine perez didn’t take part in baku, we would consider red bull pretty weak there, as verstappen was quite slow, instead thanks to perez we know red bull was a victory contender.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 14:13
You make me laugh. This seems more a Hamilton fan not liking Alonso than anything else. The Haas was faster than the AMR most of the season and their two drivers combined didn’t outscore Alonso. You should be asking what Piastri did to be ahead of Hamilton rather than whining about Alonso being ahead of Hamilton. What did either OP or LN do to be ahead as well other than be in a better car.
Alonso was the only driver in F1 score an even bigger % of his team’s points than Max. Th quali head-to-head was really 22-2 if we’re being generous to Stroll. Though 19-5 is already a drubbing, it hides the fact that 3 of Stroll’s quali “wins” were due AM putting FA out too late to put a time on the board while LS had been given time to get a lap. It got so bad that FA took over determining his own timing after Silverstone quali where he was yet again put out so late he failed to get a Q3 run in at all on a weekend in which the AMR was finally decent again due to cold temps. By the summer break alone, AMR had 5 made a huge quali timing errors that resulted in him either failing to get a lap, draining his battery to make the line or being in dirty air.
David BR (@david-br)
28th January 2025, 15:13
Hardly surprising given that Verstappen-Pérez and Alonso-Stroll were easily the worst mismatches on the grid in 2024, as in earlier seasons. Still I’m fine with Alonso anywhere between 7th and 10th over the season given his continued dedication and pace, though as the write up acknowledges, his performance dipped at times.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th January 2025, 16:47
Alonso’s performance presumably must have dipped massively at one stage of the season, unless stroll was actually good at this point. As Stroll outscored Alonso in an entire 3rd of the season all in one chunk. For that reason, I feel Alonso and Stroll are possibly a bit far apart in the rankings.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 21:42
The point wasn’t that the points split proves how good he is, but rather he did exactly what one would expect of a top driver with a weak teammate and when the car was good for much of the season in 2023, Lance scored 3x as many points. So, the idea we don’t if he did well because Lance is his teammate or maybe the car was actually better than it looks doesn’t track.
What third would this be? The only thing that ever happened was Stroll got all his quali wins in consecutive races (only one of which didn’t occur due to external circumstances).
OT, but you two wouldn’t happen to be some of the bigger Ham fans around would you?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:45
Yes, I thought that too, this wasn’t a super season by alonso and I thought he could’ve been a couple places behind; still difficult for me to argue he did worse than hamilton, considering how many off pace weekends the latter had.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:48
Ben rowe is absolutely not a hamilton fan, was a bottas fan, and also if you look at the comment itself, you will notice there’s no bias; he just noticed, like I did too, that this wasn’t the best season for alonso in terms of consistency.
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 7:03
Sorry, that was placed confusingly. That was supposed to refer BR and OP. I’ve seen Ben Rowe’s criticism of LH who, IMO, can still be one of the 4 best drivers in F1 if given a car he gels with (LH that is to be clear).
The only negative some seem to be able to hazily remember or refer to was a 4-round window where circumstances conspired to make it seem like he was struggling, but if one looked closer was actually down to
1. The car being the worst it got all year (Imola, Monaco, Spain & Austria), hardly capable of escaping Q1
2. No chance to get a representative quali lap in two of those rounds
3. Which automatically meant a low finish in 3 of the 4 rounds since Monaco, Imola & Spain = no passing, which went double since he had just gotten in penalty points trouble due to the ridiculous China & Australia penalties
4. Not surprisingly, all of LS’ quali “wins” came during this period and in the next 15 rounds Lance never out qualified him
5. And LS still ended up running behind FA except in Imola where FA literally sacrificed any chance he had by coming in extremely early in order to trick all of Lance’s competitors into pitting way too early and giving him the chance to perform an over cut that allowed him to net a P9 (his only points result in those rounds).
So, the only small period where it seemed like he was out of the groove, boiled down to factors beyond his control. I’m not surprised very few people were aware of what happened because neither media nor fans pay close attention to the details of what’s going on outside the points.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
29th January 2025, 8:58
Well, I do pay close attention to what goes on outside the points, partly why I have followed Bottas closely and why his season result is totally unrepresentetive.
Regarding Alonso’s dip in form, or the opposite for Stroll’s usual – it was between Miami and Hungary.
Miami:
Alonso 6/10
Stroll 6/10
Emilia-Romagna:
Alonso 4/10
Stroll 7/10
Monaco:
Alonso 5/10
Stroll 4/10
Canada:
Alonso 8/10
Stroll 6/10
Spain:
Alonso 6/10
Stroll 4/10
Austria:
Alonso 4/10
Stroll 7/10
Great Britain:
Alonso 6/10
Stroll 6/10
Hungary:
Alonso 6/10
Stroll 6/10
Alonso’s average ranking during this perioud was 5.625/10
Stroll’s average ranking during this perioud was 5.750/10
I know using decimels is a bit extreme, but regardless, my comment was partly stating that I thought the gap between Stroll in 20th and Alonso in 7th was a bit too much. And not only did Stroll outscore alonso by 16 – 15 points, but he also was on average ranked higher accorss this perioud, which was a pretty big third of the season.
Alonso certainly did have several poor races in this perioud, that were not “down to factors beyond his control” – the highlights being Imola and Austria.
Stroll while he made a mistake, did demonstrate that the car was better than Alonso showed it to be in Monaco. Stroll, admittedly with a bit of help from Alonso would have finished in the points again there had he not hit the wall. Alonso just didn’t seem to have the pece there, hence his 5/10 ranking. I believe that Stroll would have been comfortably rated with a 6 or 7 had he not made that mistake. And yet he still on average was rated higher than Alonso in this perioud.
I know that outside these 8 races, Alonso basically dominated Stroll, but factoring this in, I still think the gap in the rankings are too big, and as a full season, Alonso didn’t dominate Stroll in a way that the points suggest.
David BR (@david-br)
29th January 2025, 10:11
Great, so we can arrive at the same conclusion that Alonso’s season wasn’t perfect, but yours are all unbiased views! How serenely wonderful it must be to inhabit pure objectivity! You must be enlightened beings. Awesome.
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 18:07
@thegianthogweed
All rankings based on weekends that failed to take into account those factors (I read the rankings summaries). So, it doesn’t change any of that.
Off topic, but love the @ handle.
@David-BR
Theres a major difference between not perfect and your assessment. I’ve been reading this site for years and it’s pretty telling how basically never have a single good thing to say about Alonso, one of F1’s greats. And mostly comment about the guy when you’ve got something negative to say. So, forgive me when, as someone who is a fan of both Hamilton and Alonso, putting my objectivity on the subject far above yours.
David BR (@david-br)
1st February 2025, 13:05
@ El Pollo Loco True, I’m Alonso-sceptic, not that I don’t admire his year-on-year commitment and his racing prowess (shown at times with his brilliant timed passes) but his last title was almost two decades ago now. I share anon’s view (see above) that performance inconsistencies tend to be blamed by many commentators on the drivers except when it comes to Alonso, then it’s the car. And that’s perhaps explained by his own tendency not to be publicly self-critical (to put it diplomatically). Altogether, he lacks the pace of some of his biggest rivals, past and present, and I see him more as a F1 legend than an ‘all time great’.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
28th January 2025, 15:41
You seem to believe you are the oracle. I have an important update for you
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 21:48
Sorry, I didn’t see any predictions, but I’m probably missing something obvious. Who is this addressed to?
David BR (@david-br)
29th January 2025, 10:12
Maybe it’s the tiresome self-regard.
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 16:07
Uh, what self-regard is this? Pointing out that, maybe Hamilton super fans, are a very objective source? It’s not exactly a secret his “team” tends toward the non-objective and aggressive. In fact, it’s kind of really famous.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
28th January 2025, 16:11
Drivers doing well in underperforming cars will always, always look like they are doing “better” than drivers struggling ocassionally on good cars. That’s the way it is. Because when things get rough, the driver in the underperforming car (and everyone around them, frankly) would say “it’s the car” and he’d be partially right. Whereas a bad race in a good car is a lot harder to explain, even if the car wasn’t particularly good that day.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 21:51
Maybe when it comes to middling drivers, but when it comes to the best drivers, history has shown the opposite.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th January 2025, 19:49
Does the car matter in f1 in your opinion? To me it does, more than the driver, and apparently also in the opinion of those who made the ranking.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
28th January 2025, 20:30
Nonsense. LH was in a vastly superior car to Alonso and was nit making the most of it, far from it in fact. So yeah with respect to the quality of the machinery at their disposal Alonso’s season was more impressive than Hamilton’s.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:50
Ohhhh, I just remembered, I can’t take any “hamilton 2 wins” comment seriously, because a win wasn’t on merit, russell beat him but was dsq’d because of a mistake by the team, he would’ve been able to keep hamilton behind anyway.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
29th January 2025, 11:42
Seems about right to me. Hamilton had a few notable highs but ultimately underperformed for most of the season. He’d say as much himself. Alonso had a pretty consistent season in a car that was under performing. As a driver I’d say he outperformed Lewis.
I’ve seen just as many comments complaining that there’s a British bias or a Max bias or a Lewis bias or blah blah blah. There’s obviously individual fan bias on every side from some, but very little that I can see from the site itself. Maybe you’re the source of bias?
I’m a Lewis lad by the way
Jere (@jerejj)
28th January 2025, 12:31
I guessed his ranking correctly, which is decently fitting, & I assume Russell comes next.
Hans Herrmann (@twentyseven)
28th January 2025, 13:23
@jerejj yup George next, closely followed by Carlos then Oscar, Charles, Lando and then you know who :)
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th January 2025, 13:58
@twentyseven
I didn’t knew Voldermort raced ………..
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th January 2025, 13:59
Voldemort why there is a extra r I don’t know ..
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 14:28
@twentyseven / Hans
There is a zero % chance Oscar is ranked above George or Carlos. I haven’t seen any F1 website rank him higher than 6th while I’ve seen him ranked lower. Most sites ranked Leclerc ahead of Norris. Norris being ranked #2 would be insanity.
So more likely:
1. Max
2. Leclerc
3. Norris
4. Russell
5. Sainz
6. Piastri
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
28th January 2025, 14:49
I think you can make an argument either way for Norris or Leclerc at 2, but otherwise I pretty much agree. I’d be very surprised if Russell isn’t ahead of both Sainz and Piastri when he was driving a very difficult Mercedes and getting the better of Hamilton.
I also think Oscar is generally getting a sizeable credit for it being only his second season, if you are rating on absolute performance then I’d say 6th is quite generous given how rarely he had an edge over Norris and that he barely beat the slower Ferrari of Sainz in the standings while being significantly behind Leclerc.
David BR (@david-br)
28th January 2025, 15:24
Aside from Verstappen at 1, I find it difficult to rank any of the other 5. Norris-Piastri and Leclerc-Sainz seemed to cancel each other out over the season, each exposing their team mates weak points. So I guess that leaves Russell ahead as the only driver among them to be clearly ahead of his team mate (Hamilton) over the season. Personally I put a lot of that down to Hamilton announcing his departure at the start of the season, but there’s no clear evidence for that, so objectively Russell gets the credit. I’d also put Leclerc and Sainz ahead simply on the basis that Norris and Piastri fluffed their better chances to compete for the WDC. Then again they secured the WCC for McLaren, Like I said, difficult to separate the 5 of them.
Bob
28th January 2025, 16:07
Toto said Mercs focus would be on GR after LH said he was leaving…..
Also said LH wouldnt be in the technical meetings and out the loop in regards to getting the most out of his car, eg would have bare minimal help.
If Alonso ever gets beat by Daddys boy, its game over for him, Stroll is the worst of the worst.
David BR (@david-br)
28th January 2025, 16:41
@ Bob, it’s a reasonable and rational explanation for Hamilton’s non-stellar performance in 2024, predicted as the likely outcome when he announced he was leaving by the likes of Button, just not one that’s easy to verify or use to rank his performance higher. I think Russell’s performance can be assessed by the amount of confidence Mercedes don’t seem to have put in him going forward (with more interest swirling around Antonelli and signing Verstappen).
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 22:31
Leclerc is the only driver remaining other than Max who was clearly performing at a consistently great level. IMO, Piastri didn’t do anything to show he had a better season than Alonso, Hulkenberg, Hamilton or even Gasly or Ocon for that matter even if we give him an extra point for being in his second year.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:56
To me it’s not difficult: verstappen, leclerc, norris is a given, then the biggest doubt is for 4th place, I would put sainz, but russell might end up ahead, and then piastri 6th is also a given.
An Sionnach
28th January 2025, 20:31
This is what I have. I’d put Lewis next, then Alonso (more because of a lack of a reference point for him).
After that, it’s pretty hard, and I’m not sure I care enough. The pack chasing Max is frustratingly flawed as it is. At least Leclerc showed significant improvement this year.
Ocon and Gasly because they were great in the wet. Hulkenberg, Tsunoda. After them, there’s too much inconsistency in the regulars, so I might go for Lawson and Colapinto.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:53
I agree, piastri should really be next, the only thing I’m not sure about is sainz, I think he has potential to be 4th with russell 5th.
With hamilton 10th, this difference between the merc drivers would be justified.
stefano (@alfa145)
28th January 2025, 16:31
you call F1 drivers by their name because you know them personally? Or for what reason?
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 21:56
One of the odder posts I’ve seen. Most fans seem to use both first and last names when referring to drivers. Are you offended by OP on behalf of the drivers or something?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 2:59
On top of that, that prediction has at least 2 obvious mistakes that will become clear in the next few days: no way piastri is any better than 6th and no way norris is ahead of leclerc!
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 16:08
We’re doing well so far.
Sumedh
28th January 2025, 16:35
Piastri 6th or above is too generous. I would have thought Alonso or Hulk should have been ahead of him.
For that matter, Hulk behind Gasly also seemed harsh.
I would have put
9: Gasly
8: Alonso
7: Piastri
6: Hulkenburg
Piastri was for quite many weekends significantly off of Norris in the 2nd fastest car of the season.
Other than Miami, Monaco, Monza and Baku, I can’t think of any weekend where he was conclusively better than Norris.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 3:10
Could make a case for hungary: at that track having a good start and hence being ahead matters a lot since it’s so difficult to overtake, and the team allowed norris the undercut to get ahead, but normally should’ve pitted piastri first, so no matter norris’ pace, piastri was better for having track position (for what was under the drivers’ control).
Don’t mind alonso being slightly further behind, though 6th for hulk seems really high.
An Sionnach
28th January 2025, 17:55
The dip was a concern, but he has hopefully left it behind.
He was robbed in Australia. This and other unfair incidents tied his hands when it came to defending, and he had racked up a lot of unfair penalty points, too. Must have contributed to the dip. It’s demoralising to not only have a slow car, but to be told you can’t defend, too!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 3:12
Yes, australia was ridiculous, it’s one thing when you crash with your opponent, but now can no longer take a specific trajectory because if the driver behind crashes it’s your fault!
Maybe the rankings here include 1 place compensation for that silly decision.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
28th January 2025, 18:01
Seems about right. It’s hard to gauge Alonso against Stroll!!
A lot of rude comments on this site. What’s the deal? Why is everyone so angry?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 3:07
I doubt this is directed at me, but when you have comments saying hamilton should be ranked higher than alonso because he got “2” wins, more points and such, it’s no surprise that people get angry: comments like this imply the car doesn’t matter at all in f1, when we know it’s 85% of the equation.
XM
29th January 2025, 5:12
It’s a drivers ranking, not manufacturers. I also don’t agree with some of the rankings but we must discount the car in this. If we want to include the car, we might as well just look at the WDC.
hje
28th January 2025, 19:46
Alonso is just that driver that people cannot get reality of him driving “not that great anymore” (is anymore really necessary?)
When rating throughout the season, in last published season average rating, he was exactly at the same level as Bottas – with 5.81 average rank.
But hey, he’s Alonso, we have to rank him higher. Despite him making NO SPECIAL EFFORTS. Even when his experience should help him the most, in brazilian difficult conditions, he managed to – first, crash himself out in qualis – second, have a mediocre race without showing anything in particular.
Shall we really rank Alonso that high, despite the obvious fact of his age catching him up, only because his teammate is simply terrible? It isn’t the same situation as with Verstappen-Perez, because Max can provide lots of great performances, pushing the car to its limit and stole championship from McLaren only because of his driving skills.
Can’t wait for Aston Martin finally getting two competent drivers, most likely with Verstappen and Tsunoda. It’s time to get real.
Edvaldo
28th January 2025, 20:10
I think it’s absurd that Aston mostly relies on a 43-year-old driver to deliver the goods.
Usually, teams pair older experienced drivers with young promising talents, but Lawrence Stroll’s team after 8 years is still pairing older drivers to act as mentors to young Lance.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 22:07
What a ludicrous take. I’d agree with you if FA had at any point shown evidence he’s not still one of the best drivers on the grid. When he had a good car for a half a season in 2023, it was enough for him to beat every single “champion of the future” on the grid (CL, CS, LN, GR, etc.) and he went further into the season than anyone without failing to make Q3. That’s both metronomic consistency and high peak performance. Was that luck?
So, please share with us an insight that indicates Alonso isn’t easily worthy of a higher ranking let alone #7. I see a pretty shocking lack of both evidence and objectivity from the Alonso is old and average commenters here.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 3:05
You at least have to admit that the race-by-race driver rankings differ from the final ones here, sometimes by a massive amount.
So why for example is there such a difference between alonso’s ranking here and the one in the race-by-race rankings? Did he consistently get lower ratings than he deserved in the various races?
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 7:07
My response was directed to the OP. Just clarifying that cause I’m not sure if your second comment was addressed to me or OP.
hje
29th January 2025, 15:38
Of course, when you have car quicker than multiple of those “champion of the future”, then it’s easy to beat them. As soon as your car gets on the same level (which was even visible in Australia ’23), it’s getting difficult to beat them, huh?
Alonso proved in 2023 he isn’t the same caliber, for example by trying as hard as he could to NOT win Monaco. He messed up his strategy, wasn’t able to support his team in decision making – while both driver in front and driver behind was able to pick tyres correctly.
Stop thinking AMR24 was “8th-10th best car on the grid”, because it simply wasn’t. They started season ahead of McLaren (pre-Miami upgrades they were 5th best car), and he struggled to challenge them. When Aston dropped to 5th, and started dropping further behind Big 4, he wasn’t able to consistently score points.
I’ve seen “8th best car on the grid” narrative once, and he was challenging for the title with car being supposedly so slow. Now he’s unable to consistently score points. That’s a massive drop off, a clear sign that he should already retire.
El Pollo Loco
29th January 2025, 16:15
Except he didn’t have the quicker car than them. The fact you think he didn’t try hard enough in Monaco, that HE screwed up the strategy (when all the articles of the time say exactly the opposite) and the fact you’re implying Alonso, who is famous for being the greatest strategic driver in F1 history doesn’t know what he’s doing in the car, shows either how delusional or driven by an agenda you are. So, I won’t bother pointing out all the failed logic and hypocrisies present in your argument. Your mind is already made up.
Edvaldo
29th January 2025, 17:53
You’re really walking on thin ice when you call others biased but then you write
“Alonso, who is famous for being the greatest strategic driver in F1 history”
I never heard that in my life, in particular when F1 history includes drivers like Piquet, Prost and many others. And i watched all but maybe a handful of races from the guy. He’s a great strategist from inside the car, but the greatest? That might be a stretch. To call him famous for that is definitely a stretch.
Slow down, man.
hje
29th January 2025, 21:29
Except he HAD the quicker car – AMR23 in the beginning of 2023 was second slowest, only behind Red Bull – while in Monaco it was the quickest.
And Alonso had bottled it himself, please provide analysis that he didn’t – because I’ve analyzed it myself, listening to team radio, checking onboards, and there could only be one conclusion – when asked about his opinion, Alonso was only able to respond with “I don’t know mate”, and “Maybe with some fresh rubber”, implying that maybe they could switch to another set of dry tyres.
On the other hand, both Verstappen ahead, and Ocon behind, were able to respond correctly with “Inters” call.
So, I won’t bother pointing out all the failed logic and hypocrisies present in your argument anymore. Your mind is already made up.
MichaelN
28th January 2025, 21:39
He didn’t as often as he did. For every 9th (England, Belfium) there was an 11th (Italy) or 13th (Texas), and his 6th in Baku was certainly nice – but obviously helped by Pérez bungling both himself and Sainz out of the race – and again contrasts with coming second-to-last in Brazil ahead only of Zhou.
Stroll obviously makes assessing Alonso a bit harder than usual, but Stroll’s average finishing position of 13th and Alonso’s of 10th doesn’t really seem to justify this huge gap in the ranking. Alonso is an interesting guy, and while he’s getting on in age he still has boatloads of talent, but it’s also been a while since he’s shown something to get really excited about.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th January 2025, 3:03
I admittedly wasn’t too excited by alonso’s season, mostly those few races where he was outperformed by stroll, I would’ve probably placed him 9th given the circumstances, still higher than hamilton on the basis hamilton had more off pace weekends than alonso.
StephenH
30th January 2025, 12:48
Fernando’s tenacity and determination is incredible, but like Lewis even he can’t go on forever. He’s dragging out his career by sheer force of will. That being said he could still go off and drive the wheels of anything else he like for fun. I reckon he still wants the triple crown, but he may go off and do something like Bathurst for his own variant of it.