Is Aston Martin a victim of the 'Fernando Alonso curse'?

Fernando Alonso helped Aston Martin secure as many as six podium finishes in the first eight races of the season. In the next eight races, however, the team and the driver have been able to add only one more podium to the tally.

In the last race in Japan, Alonso and Aston Martin were not a part of the lead group. Instead, the team was fighting with Alpine for the last few points awarded to the lower end of the top 10.

It does come as a surprise that the team has been out-developed by almost everybody else that could be deemed as a competition.

There was a time when Aston Martin was comfortably the second-fastest car on the grid. Since then, the car's competitiveness has dropped so drastically that it is now slower than Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren with Alpine snapping at the heels as well.

For Fernando Alonso, however, there seems to be an eerie resemblance in how the team's fate has evolved. Many have started referring to the infamous curse that seems to have followed him throughout his career. Has Aston Martin also suffered from the infamous Fernando Alonso curse? Let's take a look.

What is the Fernando Alonso curse?

First things first, let's explain what is the Fernando Alonso curse. Well, this is one curse that has followed the Spaniard throughout his career and is considered even by his detractors as maybe one of his shortcomings.

Every team that Alonso has been a part of has suffered from decline as long as he's been the lead driver. In what seems to be a trend of his career, Alonso joins a team with a lot of anticipation, but as the driver takes over as the lead figure, the decline begins.

Only when the driver has not been the undisputed lead figure in the team has the unit not suffered from this fate. Both McLaren (in 2007) and Alpine (2021-22) continued to grow when he was a part of the squad.

Let's take a look at the teams Alonso has been a part of and how the 'curse' has gained attention over the years.

Renault

It might be a bit hard to truly lay the blame for Renault's downfall on Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard won the title with the team in 2005-06. After winning consecutive titles, the Spaniard decided to move to McLaren and left behind a team that suffered a sudden loss in form.

Renault was poor in 2007 and did not improve much in 2008. By 2009, the scandalous nature of the Crashgate was out in the open and it led to an exit from the sport for the team.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso joined Ferrari in 2010 and this was arguably the team where the driver came into his own as the leader. In the very first season for the team, Alonso challenged for the title only to fall short in the last race.

During his 5-year stint at Ferrari, from 2010 to 2014, the driver came close to winning the title twice but couldn't cross the final huddle. However, there was one thing that stood out in all these seasons.

Fernando Alonso became more and more powerful during his time with the team. Everything revolved around him, from car design to strategy. At the same time, another thing came out in the open and that was the regular drop in the competitiveness of the car.

Every season since 2010, Ferrari lost a step in competitiveness and by the time Alonso left the team at the end of 2014, the car was not even a frontrunner.

McLaren

After Ferrari, Fernando Alonso moved to McLaren as part of the beginning of the Honda partnership. Everybody knew what happened with that partnership. But what was completely skipped in all of that was how once Jenson Button retired from F1, McLaren started going back even in terms of chassis development.

The car was just not good enough and Fernando Alonso's public and constant ridicule of Honda also aided in ending the partnership with the Japanese manufacturer.

By the time Alonso left McLaren, the team had become too toxic, a talent like Stoffel Vandoorne was a victim and it took the team half a decade to get back to the front.

Aston Martin

Finally, we have Aston Martin, a team that started the season as a frontrunner. A Fernando Alonso podium was a regularity in the first part of the season, but as the months have progressed, things have changed.

Aston Martin admits that going down the wrong development route has been among the reasons the team has fallen behind, and that should come down to the engineering unit. There is, however, one more factor here and it is the fact that most of the driver input comes from Alonso, as he is the lead driver.

This just makes it another one in the long list of instances where the team has gone backwards when Alonso is the lead driver.

Conclusion

Fernando Alonso's career has been one where he has extracted every ounce of performance from the car. There's also the other part of his career where teams have not transformed or progressed with him at the helm. Is Aston Martin's drop in form another such instance or is there more to it?

Is Aston Martin's drop in competitiveness a result of the Fernando Alonso 'curse'? We'll find out in due time, but for now, there is an eerie resemblance to all of this.