I’ve heard schadenfreude described as the feeling that it is not enough for me to succeed, those around me must fail. That is what I think about when I watch Fernando Alonso these days. Of course I want to see the old guard get one more sip of champagne from the top step. It has been twenty years since Alonso’s last world championship and more than a decade since his last Grand Prix victory. But if I’m being honest, even more than I want Alonso to win, I want Lewis Hamilton to fail.
The record books say Hamilton is the top dog. To me, he has always been the luckiest mutt in the paddock. A driver who walked straight into a championship-calibre McLaren as a rookie while racers like Alonso had to start with the minnows at Minardi and fight their way upward. Don’t get me started on the endless favouritism shown to British drivers by the F1 media, or the crane operator at the 2007 European Grand Prix who somehow decided Hamilton’s car deserved roadside assistance from the heavens.
This weekend was the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Alonso’s home race. And the Honda-powered Aston Martin he is dragging around this season was so hopeless that Alonso was not merely outqualified by the midfield. He was beaten by his own teammate, Canadian Lance Stroll, and started dead last.
Then came the punchline. Late in the race, Alonso’s failure became Hamilton’s salvation.
On Lap 41, Alonso’s Aston Martin AMR26 stopped on track, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Hamilton, leading George Russell but still needing to make another pit stop, suddenly received exactly the intervention he needed. While the rest of the field trundled along under VSC, Hamilton dove into the pits, bolted on fresh tires, and emerged still in the lead. Check and mate.
What does Fernando Alonso need to do to buy a little luck? Why do the cards never fall his way? The 2026 regulations were supposed to be Aston Martin’s great reset. Billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll had assembled a super-team, complete with Honda power and Adrian Newey, the greatest designer in Formula 1 history. This was supposed to be Alonso’s final shot: poles, podiums, wins, maybe even one absurd late-career championship run.
Instead, one of the greatest drivers of all time is stuck in the slowest car on the grid, serving up race-winning miracles to the one driver I never wanted to see in red.
Now the rumours are swirling that Alonso could return to Alpine in 2027, the Enstone-based team where he enjoyed his greatest triumphs. Formerly Benetton, Renault, Lotus, Renault again and now Alpine, it would be Alonso going home one last time, with Flavio Briatore back in the shadows and Gucci money turning the team into the most expensive perfume bottle on the grid.
And with Alonso’s luck, he will leave Aston Martin just before they finally get it together.
Then Lance Stroll will win the 2027 World Championship, Adrian Newey will be knighted by logic’s corpse, and somewhere Fernando Alonso will be standing beside a broken Alpine, watching Lewis Hamilton smile from a podium he had no business reaching.
~ by Chris Demaras
P.S. This article inspired by Daniel telling me that he rage-quit the F1 broadcast when Alonso’s car broke down, knewing it handed the win to Hamilton.
Great analysis! Spot on!
I don’t want to hate Lewis Hamilton — but I must.