Fernando Alonso is discussing notion and actuality, the distinction he sees between his wider public picture and his evaluation of himself.

“You should promote the story, you should inform which of them are the nice ones and the unhealthy ones. In each race, in each dialogue, in each polemic, there’s all the time a great energy and a foul energy, good guys and unhealthy guys.

“And folks normally, media or no matter, they put me all the time on the unhealthy aspect. Like if I used to be doing one thing mistaken or no matter.”

Alonso’s statement has been prompted by dialogue of a comment he made in the newest sequence of Netflix’s Drive To Survive – a present broadly considered central to the transformation in Method 1’s reputation over the previous few years.

A two-time world champion and one of many sport’s most celebrated and engaging figures, Alonso says in an episode that, on F1’s character board, he’s “on the darkish aspect”.

As he talks to me in his Aston Martin crew’s headquarters on the Belgian Grand Prix, he is explaining what he meant, and the way he feels about the way in which he’s seen.

“I really feel OK,” he says. “I really feel good. I do not thoughts.

“A very powerful half is folks nonetheless need you and are nonetheless all in favour of what number of years you have got in your contract as a result of they could get curiosity in having you driving sooner or later.

“No matter is occurring on the skin is simply a part of this circus.”

‘No-one heard my model’

Alonso’s feedback to Netflix made an impression as a result of they faucet right into a theme he has often revisited up to now couple of years – that, as an outsider in a basically British setting, he’s handled in another way. But in addition as a result of they’re true – he’s typically painted because the unhealthy man.

“It has been all the time like this,” he says. “I’m perhaps Spanish and Latin. I did not have a lot help, or we do not have that media practice that may take every little thing out. We’re only a small nation from the south of Europe and we simply take every little thing that isn’t proper and we’re OK.”

However maybe, actually, he does thoughts, or no less than did, as soon as. Maybe he does not suppose it is OK. Maybe he has simply discovered to reside with it.

Undoubtedly, he has been concerned in some controversies through the years.

Most infamously, there was the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix, when he was penalised for blocking McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton within the pit lane, then fell out along with his crew bosses after asking them to favour him.

There have been others, too. Similar to when he allowed his frustrations with the efficiency and reliability of McLaren’s Honda engine to boil over on the Japanese Grand Prix in 2015 and shouted “GP2 engine” over the radio. Not the perfect thought on the house race of an organization from a rustic the place honour and face are a part of the tradition.

However there are two sides to each story. Alonso’s actions in Hungary got here in response to Hamilton pulling a quick one on the Spaniard.

And the GP2 engine comment was in the direction of the tip of a season through which Honda’s fallibilities had made the corporate near a laughing inventory in F1. He had made loads of constructive feedback earlier than his persistence lastly snapped within the heightened adrenaline of a race state of affairs.

Alonso would possibly fairly level out that different drivers make vital feedback about rivals, do questionable issues, and hold forth on the radio, and aren’t tarred with the identical brush.

And he might be forgiven for not fairly having the ability to compute, given all this, why his return to the entrance with Aston Martin this yr has been met with such clear acclaim.

Does he really feel misunderstood?

“The issues which have been talked about and have been revealed on some episodes, for positive might result in some misunderstandings,” he says. “Like, as you stated, 2007, the Hungary factor. No-one heard my model, or the reality, or the details.”

And what’s that?

“I stated that I by no means maintain anybody,” he says, referring to stopping Hamilton doing a last qualifying lap. “They simply gave me previous tyres when it was qualifying.

“So there’s the radio transcript, the choice from the stewards, the place it’s written that they put me a penalty on an article that did not exist. They simply put the penalty however clarified it was not for any article. And issues like that.

“And it was my crew placing a protest in opposition to myself, which is the primary time within the historical past of the game. So while you put all these sorts of issues and you do not see the details, clearly it’s tough to make clear some misunderstandings.”

That is the primary time I can keep in mind Alonso publicly discussing the controversy of Hungary 2007. There’s a lot to unpick in what he stated, however it’s clear that additional questions on the subject won’t be welcomed.

Alonso’s model of occasions isn’t, to illustrate, the accepted one.

Did McLaren match used tyres to his automobile? It could’t be dominated out, nevertheless it does not seem like it from TV photos from the time, and he went out and set pole afterwards.

Was there a radio transcript? Someplace, most likely, however McLaren folks’s recollections of the incident are solely of the countdown to when he ought to have left, then the crew urging him to go, and radio silence from the automobile.

Did McLaren protest in opposition to him? Not formally, however numerous senior crew members actually complained to the FIA about his actions. Alonso was penalised – over a matter through which many thought the stewards shouldn’t have gotten concerned – and Hamilton’s actions which provoked him had been by no means punished.

5 years in the past, when Alonso was about to step away from F1 for the primary time, I attempted to determine the true story of key episodes in his profession for a sequence of articles, and spoke to lots of these concerned.

One factor turned all too obvious. Establishing a definitive reality was unattainable – everybody’s reminiscence various. So, for now, maybe the way in which to consider what Alonso says is it’s his reality.

And that is nearly as good a approach as any of understanding Alonso. He lives by his reality – with ardour and with out compromise. And he typically cannot resist the temptation to place it throughout. Simply as importantly, he has a uncommon expertise for expressing his opinion in a strong and vivid method in just some phrases.

The fashionable world lives on headlines and Alonso’s phrases and actions present them – very often deliberately; generally not. And since he’s such a high-profile identify, they resonate.

“If you find yourself 20 years in a aggressive degree in any sport,” he says, “I believe you’re going to get a few of these episodes.

“If we go to tennis, or soccer, or no matter, with all of the respect for another gamers in soccer, perhaps the suitable midfielder of 1 small crew will get some episodes and no-one is aware of something about them. If Ronaldo or Messi or another massive gamers generally get a yellow or crimson card or [say something in] no matter interview, there’s a massive story behind.

“So I believe I discovered myself generally in these conditions.”

Alonso sees a kindred spirit in world champion Max Verstappen – one other he considers an outsider who has had a tough trip in public.

“I like Max,” Alonso says. “He is a driver who simply comes Thursday to the circuit, attire in a Purple Bull uniform, races Saturday and Sunday and leaves the monitor, goes again house and continues to be racing on the sim or in GTs along with his father or simply having fun with motorsport normally however having a standard life.

“Coming additionally from the Netherlands, [a country] with not a lot background of F1. He is nonetheless a really regular individual, simply loving motorsport, and he is very quick. I believe his angle and behavior right here within the circuit, he’s very regular and I like these sorts of issues.”

Alonso has reasonably brushed over the very fact Verstappen’s father is a former F1 driver who uncompromisingly ready his son for his profession from the age of three. Nonetheless, the overall level is true sufficient.

‘It has been an incredible welcome from everybody’

Given the controversies which have peppered his profession, it has been fascinating to see Alonso’s return to the entrance with Aston Martin this season met with virtually common delight.

From the very first race in Bahrain, the enjoyment that one of many best drivers in historical past was lastly again in a automobile that might permit him to run near the entrance, after 10 years within the aggressive wilderness, was palpable – each contained in the F1 paddock and out of doors.

His on-track achievements in 2023 – six podiums within the first eight races; a win that bought away in Monaco – have delighted audiences throughout the globe. And he has turn out to be a social media sensation off monitor – whether or not it has been making realizing references to wild rumours of a romance with Taylor Swift, or being caught on digicam sniffing flowers within the TV ‘pen’ in Miami.

“It has been an incredible welcome from everybody that I’m going again to a extra aggressive place,” Alonso says. “Additionally for Aston Martin – everyone seems to be blissful for a brand new crew to hitch the struggle. We see within the grandstands quite a lot of inexperienced color.

“The previous followers who nonetheless keep in mind among the good days, it’s good to show to them that I can nonetheless be fast, and revel in my driving. And for the brand new followers who perhaps by no means noticed me on the rostrum, it’s good to have this chance once more.”

Alonso has dominated his team-mate Lance Stroll. However the dynamic between the 2 is like none at another crew within the pit lane.

Aston Martin is owned by Lance’s father – Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. The crew successfully exists for Lance. For somebody with such aggressive depth as Alonso, this may need been anticipated to result in issues. As an alternative, Alonso, as Verstappen has described it, has been “like a life coach” to his team-mate.

On two events Alonso has discovered himself behind Stroll in races – in Spain and Austria – he has gone on the radio to say he will not attempt to go. He even provided reside set-up recommendation over the radio mid-race in Azerbaijan.

“I do know what my function is,” Alonso says. “Attempt to assist the crew to develop in all these areas, attempt to assist Lance as properly in something that I can deliver to the crew. As a result of I’ll race for just a few extra years however I do not know what number of – not so lengthy. And he’ll race for a lot of extra years, and he has to guide the crew into the long run. So I’m blissful to assist.

“I do not suppose there’s far more thriller on this. We’ve got a great relationship now. We’re not combating for the championship. If we had been combating for the championship, perhaps there could be much less communication or a little bit bit extra rigidity, between the crew or drivers, however proper now we’ve very clear targets and we work collectively in that course.”

‘You are taking it a little bit bit private’

Alonso wouldn’t be at Aston Martin, nonetheless, had the administration at Alpine not mishandled the motive force market final season.

He had each intention of staying on the French crew, however their prevarication over contract negotiations – providing solely a one-year cope with choices reasonably than the 2 years he needed – and numerous ill-advised feedback from chief govt officer Laurent Rossi within the media made him query their dedication.

So when Aston Martin contacted him following Sebastian Vettel’s choice to retire, Alonso jumped on the probability to hitch a crew whose potential he believed was clear.

Many questioned the transfer on the time, nevertheless it was an impressed alternative – even when among the distinction in efficiency between the groups this yr is right down to Aston Martin gaining Alonso and Alpine shedding him.

Rossi was changed a few weeks in the past. This interview came about earlier than the information crew principal Otmar Szafnauer had additionally been eliminated, however Alonso made his emotions about Rossi and Szafnauer clear.

“I do not suppose I felt disrespected,” he says. “However it’s true it took longer than I assumed once we began conversations – I believe it was in Australia again in [April] 2022 – about renewing the contract.

“It was simply on a really sluggish tempo, and it was not from my aspect. I used to be simply prepared and blissful. The 2022 automobile was a quick automobile so I used to be additionally pleased with the efficiency and the probabilities into the long run.

“In order that sluggish tempo of conversations and finally not even placing on paper what we had been writing and all these feedback in regards to the age and no matter, which they’re nonetheless doing.

“It’s the approach they do issues. Or the way in which Otmar does issues. As a result of after this yr, he ought to be quiet. He shouldn’t discuss in any respect. After the outcomes of Aston Martin and the outcomes he is attaining, he is nonetheless speaking and nonetheless happy with the choice, which is unimaginable, wonderful.”

Does he suppose Alpine underestimated what he delivered to the crew?

“100%,” Alonso replies. “And nonetheless do.”

He provides: “If you find yourself doing the perfect you may each weekend, after I did so many issues for Renault as properly, you’re taking a little bit bit private when somebody is doubting your efficiency or your age or these sorts of issues.

“And also you simply need to show even further onerous that you’re in the perfect second of your profession. The outcomes, they communicate for themselves, and that is the easiest way.”

‘There may be extra to come back’

Alonso admits the efficiency of Aston Martin this season was “a little bit bit sudden,” however he says to be again combating on the entrance has been an “unimaginable feeling, one thing I hoped for for a few years”.

The crew’s efficiency tailed off up to now 4 races earlier than the summer time break, however there’s optimism the foundations have been set for a brilliant future. Which raises the query of whether or not, even on the age of 42, Alonso is considering wanting to remain on past the tip of his contract in 2024.

“Not pondering an excessive amount of into the long run, pondering on these years solely,” he says. “The goal is to continue to grow as a crew. We’re discovering some obstacles proper now.

“We’re coping with some further efficiency from our opponents, our lack of efficiency in sure circuits and these sorts of issues. Which I discover very fascinating and really helpful for us as a crew to develop up.

“We’ll all the time discover difficulties and a few obstacles in the way in which. And it is as much as us now cope with these and overcome them. The crew is actually intelligent in among the approaches it’s taking now, and even when we’re struggling a little bit bit on this center a part of the yr, it’ll make us stronger sooner or later. So I’m fairly optimistic.”

And of his personal performances to date this yr?

“I’m blissful however nonetheless clearly room to enhance,” he says. “Solely the primary six months with the crew and nonetheless there’s extra to come back.”