Fernando Alonso admits that the constant grind of the F1 lifestyle meant he would have missed out on a number of life's smaller joys.
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Fernando Alonso is not only one of Formula 1‘s most tenured drivers, but also up there with many of the most successful ones.
The Spaniard is a two-time world champion and a multi-time race winner. He’s also driven for some of the best teams on the grid.
However, he admits that the constant grind of the F1 lifestyle meant that he would have missed out on a number of life’s smaller joys.
“I would say yes, but not clear on if I go in detail what I missed or what it cost in my normal life,” he told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“I will not be able to say exactly what I missed or what I lost. For sure, when you are in the paddock when you are 19, and now I’m 40, I’m sure I lost a few things in life.
“Obviously you are away from your family for most of your life and friends; and maybe you lose some of them.
“When you enter here you are just living a dream that you started when you were a go-kart driver. And you aim to become a Formula 1 driver.
“Then you arrive here, and you are ready to sacrifice whatever comes with that dream.
“But, because we didn’t have a normal life even from 10 years old or 12 years old, we’ve been racing internationally in go-karts, etc. We don’t know exactly what it means to have a normal life. So (it’s) a mismatch.”
That being said, it’s not just F1 that prohibits drivers from enjoying a normal life. Fernando Alonso took a two-year break from Formula 1 at the end of 2018. And he chose to focus on other pursuits, like endurance racing and IndyCar.
In his words, the need to focus on multiple car racing disciplines was ‘intense’.
“I tell you, those two years, they were so intense,” he said.“I was changing cars every weekend.”
Alonso further detailed the challenges of having to constantly switch cars every week.
“I was driving for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship. But the following week I was in Doha with the Dakar car, surfing the dunes, learning how to drive in [the] sun.
“And then the following week, I was in Indianapolis with the oval racing, and this was a very, very intense two years [of] switching cars and always having a steering wheel in my hands. So again, I didn’t have a normal life, let’s call it.”
Alonso will be part of F1 at the Alpine F1 team in the 2022 season.
