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Jock Clear says Fernando Alonso’s bad decisions throughout his Formula 1 career are to blame for his low number of championships.
The Spaniard’s two world titles make him perhaps the biggest ‘what if’ in F1 history. Alonso has exceptional talent even now at 45 years old, but many believe that he should have had more success.
After winning his two titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, he joined McLaren alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2007. It resulted in a tense fallout with the Woking outfit and sparked a series of poor career decisions.
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If Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were in equal machinery for their entire F1 careers, who would have been better?
Jock Clear says Fernando Alonso cannot blame bad ‘luck’ for not winning more titles
A return to Renault in 2008 brought little success over two years. In 2010, Alonso made the switch to Ferrari, but could not win the championship across five years with them.
He came close to winning in 2010 and 2012, but the turn of the regulations saw the team fall behind. Alonso knew winning with Ferrari was ‘impossible’ in 2014 after seeing their ‘shocking’ engine and decided to move back to McLaren.
Their Honda power units were even worse, with the Spaniard spending four years stuck towards the back of the grid before briefly retiring at the end of 2018. He returned with Alpine in 2021, and he has only collected a handful of podiums since then.
Now with Aston Martin, the 45-year-old is hoping to end his career on a high note, but Clear thinks his poor decisions have cost him a third title. He refuses to say bad ‘luck’ is a factor.
Asked who he would have liked to have worked with in his career, he told Formula1.It: “I would have liked to work with Alonso, he’s an incredible talent. Maybe he was unlucky in his career, but I’m not one to attribute a role to luck: luck plays a part in a GP, but in a career it balances out.
How will Fernando Alonso’s Formula 1 career be remembered?
“He could have won more with different decisions. I would have liked to work with him, to see how he works, his skills, his driving technique. You don’t understand much from the outside. Apart from that, no regrets.”
The Spaniard finds himself in the middle of another critical decision in 2026, as he is being linked with a return to Alpine. But Juan Pablo Montoya has told Alonso to stay with Aston Martin, as he fears that making a switch will result in another poor spell.
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