McLaren boss reveals what Alonso needed to become Ferrari champion

Fernando Alonso He has two Formula 1 world crowns. Both were achieved when the man from Oviedo was active in the ranks Renault (in 2005 and 2006). But the truth is that 14 could have had a few more titles. The closest he came to improving his brilliant record was with Ferrari. The Spaniard took second place a couple of times Maranello.

And let’s not forget that in 2010 he was four points behind. Sebastian Vettel (256 points for the Red Bull competitor compared to 252 points for the Asturian). And in 2012 there were only three of them (281 of Seb compared to Fernando’s 218).

In 2014, Alonso went to McLaren, where he no longer had a chance to compete for the World Championship. So he was left with a thorn in his side: he didn’t win a championship with the most iconic team in the world. Big Circus. “If I could go back in time, Probably the first thing I would choose is to win the championship with Ferrari.“, emphasized the Spanish competitor.

What was Fernando missing?

As it were, Andrea Stella, someone very close to Fernando, recently spoke about what was missing for the two-time champion to win the title with the Scuderia. The Italian engineer, who is currently McLaren’s sporting director, commented on the situation in podcast Formula 1 Off the grid who were close to repeating the glorious era Mikhail Schumacher.

“We were of course very close to success in Fernando’s first year at Ferrari, which is very different from how Michael started his journey. He scored three wins (in 1996) thanks to his enormous talent rather than the competitiveness of the car. I think Michael’s Journey was quite a journey.” Ross came, Rory Byrne came, James Ellison came… So there was a lot of continuity in this journey as we continued to identify what you needed to add and build it brick by brick. I think that was what we were missing with Fernando.“, says Stella.

And he adds to the sentence: “We could build it, but we would definitely need more continuity. and this approach has somehow taken hold at Ferrari since the mid-90s.”

Alonso is the most perfect; He’s not the best at many things, but he’s very strong at everything.

Andrea Stella (McLaren Sporting Director)

The most complete

On the other hand, Stella still believes that “14” is a special driver. “When we talk about being the most perfect, I definitely think of Alonso.. In principle, Fernando has no weaknesses. I think that’s what makes it unique. “He’s not the best at a lot of things, but he’s very good at everything,” Stella says.