{"id":61142,"date":"2025-08-11T23:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61142\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T23:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T23:35:13","slug":"the-shocking-moment-fernando-alonso-realised-winning-an-f1-title-with-ferrari-would-be-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61142\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘shocking moment’ Fernando Alonso realised winning an F1 title with Ferrari would be ‘impossible’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fernando Alonso\u2019s move to Ferrari in 2010 from Renault was tipped to be just what he needed to add another championship to his incredible career.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard was already a two-time champion from his time with Renault before his ill-timed move to McLaren in 2007. After sparking an intense rivalry with Lewis Hamilton, he returned to Enstone for another two seasons, which were ultimately unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Alonso<\/a> signed with Ferrari<\/a> in 2010, replacing the outgoing Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>, and he immediately sought to win the championship. Alonso demanded number one status over Felipe Massa<\/a> when he arrived in Maranello.<\/p>\n

RANKDRIVERWINS1Michael Schumacher722Niki Lauda153Sebastian Vettel144Alberto Ascari13=5Felipe Massa11=5Fernando Alonso117Kimi Raikkonen108Rubens Barrichello99Charles Leclerc8=10Jacky Ickx6=10Gilles Villeneuve6Most wins for Ferrari drivers in F1<\/p>\n

He narrowly missed out on a third title in 2010 and 2012 as he came up short to Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull. The 2011 and 2013 seasons were dominated by the German, with Ferrari and Alonso having no answer.<\/p>\n

The team were presented with an opportunity to close the gap and take control in F1 as a regulation change introduced V6 hybrid engines. However, the new rules only made things worse for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoPhoto by Darren Heath\/Getty ImagesFernando Alonso knew winning a title with Ferrari was \u2018impossible\u2019 when he saw their \u2018shocking\u2019 2014 engine<\/p>\n

With Raikkonen back at Ferrari partnering Alonso, the team had all the experience they needed to tackle the 2014 season and the new regulations. However, as Luca Di Montezemolo<\/a> put it to BBC Sport<\/a>, Ferrari \u2018heavily underestimated\u2019 what was required of the new engines.<\/p>\n

When the team went to Jerez for pre-season testing, Alonso and Raikkonen found the car to have no power. They would end up slipping to fourth in the standings in 2014, with the Spaniard grabbing just two podiums.<\/p>\n

It was here that, as Di Montezemolo recalled, Alonso knew he could \u2018never\u2019 win a championship again if he stayed at Ferrari.<\/p>\n

POS.DRIVERTEAMPTS.1Lewis\u00a0HamiltonMercedes3842Nico\u00a0RosbergMercedes3173Daniel\u00a0RicciardoRed Bull Racing Renault2384Valtteri\u00a0BottasWilliams Mercedes1865Sebastian\u00a0VettelRed Bull Racing Renault1676Fernando\u00a0AlonsoFerrari1617Felipe\u00a0MassaWilliams Mercedes1348Jenson\u00a0ButtonMcLaren Mercedes1269Nico\u00a0HulkenbergForce India Mercedes9610Sergio\u00a0PerezForce India Mercedes592014 Formula 1 drivers\u2019 standings<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me: \u2018There is no power in the engine,’\u201d said Di Montezemolo. \u201cAnd the third day was Fernando and he told me exactly the same. And I understood that the season was over because it was impossible to work on the engine, because under the rules it was frozen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the moment Fernando said: \u2018If I continue to stay at Ferrari, I will never again win a championship.\u2019 Because it was really a shocking moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Jordan felt Alonso was a \u2018prisoner\u2019 at Ferrari<\/a> as he could not secure a better move, with Nico Rosberg established at Mercedes, while Daniel Ricciardo was looking strong at Red Bull. He would ultimately return to McLaren for 2015, which failed miserably.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso\u2019s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FernandoPhoto by Paul-Henri Cahier\/Getty ImagesFernando Alonso didn\u2019t meet expectations but he remains one of F1\u2019s top talents<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old is still waiting for his third title, having had stints with McLaren and Alpine since leaving Ferrari. Now with Aston Martin<\/a>, he is hoping to have a competitive car under the 2026 F1 regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alonso was backed to win 10 world championships<\/a> in his career, but it has not worked out that way. At present, he sits 11th in the standings with just 26 points, having not finished on the podium since 2023.<\/p>\n

However, Alonso remains one of the best drivers in F1<\/a>, evidenced by some strong performances with Aston Martin in 2025. His impressive P5 at the Hungarian GP proves that he can still fight at the front.<\/p>\n

But whether Aston Martin can provide him with a championship-winning car is a big question. With his contract expiring in 2026, he likely does not have a lot of time left to become a three-time champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso\u2019s move to Ferrari in 2010 from Renault was tipped to be just what he needed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,845,826,813,816,49404,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-61142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-fernando-alonso","12":"tag-ferrari","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-luca-di-montezemolo","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}