"He's a 150-years-old"- Fernando Alonso is 'not washed' but lost a lot of points due to Alpine's 'strategy' and 'unreliability' in 2022 F1 season

Fernando Alonso has been plagued with bad luck in terms of reliability issues this season. Due to this, the Alpine driver is currently trailing his teammate Esteban Ocon by 23 points. In a recent podcast by WTF1, this was one of the topics as the panel discussed whether Fernando Alonso was "overrated" and not at his best in races anymore.

One of the panelists, Katy Fairman, didn't agree with the sentiment and said:

“Ocon has been doing a stellar job, getting in consistent points, he’s only had one retirement so far this year in comparison to Fernando Alonso’s two, but he has also finished outside of points in two races. But he’s steadily been building up those points and that consistency is kind of going under the radar. Esteban generally, for some reason, his performances always seem to go under the radar, it’s never really talked very much.’’

She went on to say:

“Whereas Alonso, the man loves a headline! whether he’s being controversial, whether his car’s sidepod just obliterated itself and ruined his day, so it’s fair to say that he’s lost a lot of points due to Alpine’s poor strategy or the unreliability of the car, maybe sometimes him pushing a little too far and getting penalties.’’

Fairman added:

“So, I wouldn’t say Alonso is washed or anything, he’s really surprised me in his comeback. Last year was good, this year, the guy put it on the front row in Canada, like he’s what, a 150-years old and still doing this? I see where you’re coming from but I wouldn’t say he’s washed.’’

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Fernando Alonso was struck by bad luck again in Austria

Fernando Alonso received the short end of the stick once again when it came to luck; the Spaniard's race was compromised in Austria as well. An electric issue in the Sprint race did not allow him to start and even in the main race, Alonso was on course for a strong recovery and a P6 finish before a poor pit stop dropped him to a P10 finish. After the race, the Alpine F1 driver said:

“No, no, I was P6 until the double stop at the end, so from P6 to P10. So another eight points in the bin today. No I think the wheel was okay but I had huge vibrations on that set, so we needed to see what was there and I had to stop again. I was P14 when I was going out, instead of the eighth that I think I could have been, and from P14 we took some places until P10.”

Alonso might be trailing his teammate in the championship, but there are a lot of mitigating circumstances at play as well for that.