Joe Examines Alonso's Legacy In Formula 1 – A Huge Talent Who Should Have Achieved Far More.

The news that Fernando Alonso is leaving Formula 1, which came in the middle of the summer break, is no great surprise.

- Joe Saward

The 37-year-old Spanish driver, who has had 17 seasons in Formula 1, had only one choice left – McLaren. And he didn’t want to go on racing for the team. He felt it would be time wasted. He’s probably right in that respect, because there is a lot of work needed to get McLaren back to the front of the F1 pack and the team has been holding itself back in recent times with its nonsensical management structure. It might work in theory, in big companies, but racing teams are all about speed and accountability. You need people to be responsible for their sphere of influence and to have to answer to a boss.

Alonso clearly had no chance back at Ferrari, where he raced between 2010 and 2014, scoring 11 of his 32 victories. Red Bull was not interested, nor was Mercedes. Renault might have talked to him, but it’s building for the future and Fernando is too old to be part of that plan. And it’s hard to see why he would go anywhere else. The key point in all of this is that Alonso has a reputation for not being a team player, and for making the wrong choices when it comes to his future. At the start of his career, he was guided in a sensible fashion, spending a year learning at Minardi and then moving into the Renault factory team for the next five seasons – during which time he won his two World Championships, and won 15 races.