Fernando Alonso Urged F1's New Owners To Make Racing 'Interesting Again'

Fernando Alonso has warned the owners of Formula 1 — Liberty Media — that they have to make the sport “interesting again” if they are to avoid alienating fans.

F1 has always seen a few teams dominate during different eras like the Michael Schumacher and Ferrari domination during the early 2000’s after which they were joined by Renault and McLaren. Red Bull Racing dominated the field between 2010 and 2013 before the new V6 turbo hybrid era was introduced.

Since 2014, it has been a Mercedes show with no other team being able to come close to ending their dominance. Only in 2018 season has Ferrari mounted a serious challenge, but that too has been swatted aside in the second half of the campaign.

In the last five seasons, no other team apart from Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have won a race and despite there being exciting racing and unpredictability between the top three teams, the gulf between them and the midfield teams has been vast.

And that is Alonso’s main concern — as even if one of the top three teams’ cars start at the back of the grid they can easily make their way through the field and finish in at least sixth place. Moreover, the tire strategy has become predictable unlike the early part of the decade when Michelin and Bridgestone were part of the sport.

The Spaniard urged the new owners of the sport to bring back the unpredictable nature of F1 in the future and make the sport more interesting than it currently is.

“You need to make the sport interesting again,” Alonso said, according to Planet F1. “I posted a video of 2005 and I received 3000 comments of ‘this is the Formula 1 I fell in love with and not the thing you have now’, so it’s not me being critical of this Formula 1, it’s the whole world.”

“One of the top six cars can start last in every race and will finish in the top six and lap the seventh with whatever guy you put in those cars. We miss the noise of the V10, the V8, we miss the creativity on the strategy, the different fuel loads, the tyre competition, so you go into Sunday with some unpredictable feeling of what is going to happen,” the double F1 Drivers’ champion added.

Alonso, however, will not be part of the new era of F1 after he confirmed in August that he will leave the sport at the end of the 2018 season. The Spaniard is adamant he will enjoy every minute of his final four races and made it clear that he is leaving the sport after achieving all his dreams.

“Every race now, from the moment I decided to stop, is just a celebration,” Alonso said. “I can’t wait to go to Austin now and see the place again, drive around in the cars.”

“Maybe we’re not the fastest when you see the times at the end of the session, but every lap feels fantastic. It’s not that I don’t love F1 anymore, I still love these cars, but if I stop now it’s because I’m 37 years old and achieved all my dreams in F1,” the Spaniard explained.