When Fernando Alonso explodes: this is how his blood boiled at the best missed opportunity

It takes broad shoulders and a thick crust to stay motivated in times of anger, after almost a quarter of a century in Formula 1. To stoically endure the reverse engineering that Fernando Alonso has experienced with Aston Martin in recent times. It's hard to avoid the explosion of anger at the sharp turns of fortune, especially when you've seen yourself driving with gusto in the opening laps of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix right next to Verstappen, Piastri, Norris, and Russell, and the Dutchman won.

The better, the worse. That could sum up Alonso's race. As the AMR25 transformed into Imola, it rained on the wet ground of previous races, now even more viciously. Rarely has he been seen gesticulating so much with his hands off the wheel in a Grand Prix.

Resilient, determined to fight on the track and not give up a position, with a mind of titanium, the cry illustrated Alonso's phenomenal level of frustration: "It's going to be torture, what a disaster. I'm the unluckiest driver in the fucking world." Whether or not Aston Martin has made a great qualitative leap forward will be seen in the future. At Imola, it did, hence the pan-tossing blows, one after the other, that the Asturian took in the race hurt like never before. Still, zero points.

"A torture, a disaster"

If Saturday's fifth place was a surprise, Alonso must have been amazed to see only four cars ahead of him at Tamburello , the Villeneuve variant, and Tosa. When they kept him in check, he must have been licking his lips inside his helmet , with the Williams in his wake and the Ferraris even further behind.

Like Mercedes with Russell or Williams with Sainz, Aston Martin called Alonso too early, perhaps because they didn't have fresh tires, a result of Saturday's decision. Perhaps in response to Charles Leclerc's early attack from behind . It wasn't the best strategy, as it turned out in hindsight, even though fortune was once again lurking in search of the Asturian with a loaded rifle.

"Sainz overtook me on the same tire, so we have to focus on Albon," he warned his team over the radio after Sainz overtook him following his pit stop. He clearly saw that a seventh place was possible, concentrating on the realistic fight. He didn't yet realize that the Ferraris were coming like planes behind him.

Then came that ill-timed Virtual Safety Car when Esteban Ocon 's car stopped on the track. Hamilton and Albon made a clean stop, and several others took advantage of the opportunity to stop under the Virtual Safety Car. Why didn't Aston Martin do the same for Alonso? With just enough tires to make it to the finish, both Astons had the sky in their hands.

No special foresight was required when Alonso sentenced his engineer. "Our race is over," he warned laconically, "in any case, we're very unlucky. The race was good, but this year everything is going wrong for us ." He would later express it on the radio with even greater vehemence: "This is torture, a disaster. I'm the unluckiest driver in the fucking world!"

Incandescent inside the helmet

There was more to come. During the safety car brought out by Kimi Antonelli, Alonso was seen gesturing desperately on the straight: either he received contradictory messages, or there wasn't enough time to get in on time after the race was interrupted. It seems the former. He came in on the following lap. It couldn't be more black cat.

Then, he fought back as far as he could. Judging by his driving style, Alonso was incandescent on the final lap . After making a comeback from the second pit stop under the safety car, he desperately tried to secure the last point with Yuki Tsunoda after having dropped to fourteenth. "We managed to fight back and overtook the Alpines , Saubers, and AlphaTauris; we were more in the race with Williams and Mercedes. We couldn't have been more unlucky ..."

“It’s a shame, but we didn’t finish 11th and 15th , not because we didn’t have the pace, but because we were incredibly unlucky. We were supposed to finish 6th and 7th. Of the 100 stages the race had, 99 would have been like this, but today it came up tails,” he told the media afterwards, the same words he had thrown to his engineer over the radio on the deceleration lap.

The brakes in China, the poor strategy in the sprint race with his negative opinion in Miami... Now, with the cruelest Virtual Championship , with the best car in a year. Undeterred by discouragement, the anger is even greater when your machine is better after months of frustration. Everything has a limit.

"On every corner of the circuit"

And from now on, what? Is it possible to look to the future with different perspectives, given Aston Martin's qualitative leap at Imola? Is it real, or is it favored by the specific circumstances of this weekend? "We've brought an improvement that has made us faster on every corner of a circuit like this, we're happy," confessed Andy Cowell, the CEO of the green team, at the end. That "every corner" invites hope.

"We need to keep finding areas to improve and put ourselves in a better position for the upcoming races." In the end, there was little to gain from such an assault, but Aston Martin achieved its main objective at Imola: not so much shaving tenths off the AMR25, which seems to be the case on this track, but rather certifying that the methodology and new tools work for subsequent developments. And it seems that, secretly, Adrian Newey is supervising with his advice. Time will tell.

"I think it's the quality of the data we have with this package, which is much better than before. It was developed in the previous wind tunnel, but measured and refined in the new one," Cowell concluded. "What we learned this weekend will help us going forward, and with the development of new parts for this year and also for next." It's not easy. For now, the racing gods have dealt Fernando Alonso a terrible blow, making his blood boil.

"Getting into Q3 relieves the pressure on the whole team for the moment. We have to keep our feet on the ground . Perhaps the characteristics of the track have helped Aston Martin," warned Fernando Alonso at the end. "So we have to wait for Monaco in Barcelona." With the previous AMR25, the Monaco track was awaited with dread. We'll have to see now.