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Fernando Alonso cannot seem to catch a break this season. It is either a reliability issue or bad timing with the safety car or an unlucky collision, all of which has left him with nothing to show for this season.
After five races in 2022, the Spaniard only has two points to his name. Compare that to the 24 points scored by his teammate Esteban Ocon and the gravity of the situation hits you.
Alonso suffered from reliability issues in Saudi Arabia that led to a DNF and a hydraulic failure in Australia that ended up resulting in a poor grid position. Lastly, the tap from the spinning Haas of Mick Schumacher in Imola did not help matters either. So, yes, it is fair to say that the 40-year-old driver has had rotten luck this season. Even F1 pundits claim that the Spanish driver has been driving as well as he ever has, but luck simply has not been on his side.
However, we believe that the Alpine driver's performance levels are lionized more than they should be. Alonso has, without a doubt, done a good job so far this season, but placing him at the level of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and, perhaps even, George Russell might be a bit too much ?
Do his performances truly mirror the level of the elites? We beg to differ. Keep reading to find out why Fernando Alonso's 2022 F1 season is overrated.
Fernando Alonso has had 2 subpar races out of a total of 5 races this season
We've had five races so far this season, out of which Fernando Alonso has had a poor race in Bahrain, where he consistently struggled with his tires and in Miami, where he ended up finishing outside of the points after two five-second penalties.
In Bahrain, the Spaniard was overtaken thrice by his own teammate Esteban Ocon. Although Alonso ended up scoring points in Bahrain, it was mostly due to the three Red Bull Powertrains cars that DNFd at the end of the race. If we take that out of the equation, Alonso squandered a great qualifying position in that race.
The Miami GP was similar. The Spaniard had a great start to the race and he even managed to jump Lewis Hamilton. However, as the race went on, he lost the position to the seven-time world champion without much of a fight. He, then, chased Gasly relentlessly, only to first lose out to him in the pits and then to bump him out of the way on the way to gaining a place. Alonso secured a five-second penalty for this. Later in the race, he went off track, gained an advantage, and incurred another five-second penalty that dropped him out of the points.
That's 40% of the races where the Spaniard has had a subpar performance. Is that truly the level of performance of an elite driver? Not really.
Fernando Alonso's Australian GP race was not as spectacular as his qualifying lap
A lot has been said about the mythical lap Alonso was on in Q3 in Australia before his car suffered a hydraulic failure. If everything had gone right, the Spaniard might have started in third place come Sunday.
But if we look at his race alone, it leaves much to be desired. Alonso started the race in P10, a position that would have yielded points had he managed to keep his position. However, the Alpine driver finished at the back of the grid in 17th position. How, you ask.
The Spaniard, unlike his teammate, who started in 8th place and finished in 7th, gambled with an alternate strategy that turned against him because of the safety car and, hence, left him with too much to do on medium tires.
The thing to keep in mind here is that the strategic gamble does fall on Fernando Alonso as well and part of the responsibility does go to him for not being able to optimize his race like his teammate was able to.
Esteban Ocon has overall been a more consistent driver
Alonso's teammate Esteban Ocon has kept his head down and has been plugging away, bringing important points to the team.
Since the very first race this season, Ocon has been the more impressive driver. Alonso would have finished ahead of his teammate in Jeddah if not for his retirement. In Australia, Ocon, arguably, chose the better strategy and made progress from his grid slot while Alonso squandered a points finish.
Imola has been hard to judge since Ocon suffered a reliability issue in qualifying while Alonso suffered the same in the race. Lastly, Ocon bounced back from the back of the grid in Miami, finishing ahead of Alonso.
Having looked at the bigger picture, it looks quite obvious that Fernando Alonso, while he has had some sensational peaks and some bad luck, is probably overrated when we compare his performances to that of the best drivers on the grid.
