Fernando Alonso has come out and clarified that he never called himself the best driver on the grid. Multiple publications recently reported that Alonso was quoted as saying "I'm better" when asked to compare himself to other top drivers on the grid.
In his interview with the BBC, as reported by various publications, when questioned about the prospect of driving alongside some great talent on the grid, Fernando Alonso said:
"It’s going to be great, I’m looking forward [to it]; there were some young talented guys who have been showing great performance in the younger categories, and then we still have the champions, that were here two years ago with Lewis, Sebastian, Kimi."
"Verstappen – even if he is one of the young ones and the younger generation – he is racing at the top level for already four or five years. We have a competitive grid and it’s going to be a challenge to beat everyone on track."
According to the publications, when questioned whether he was as good as the other top drivers, Alonso had said:
"No – I’m better."
In a recent interview, Fernando Alonso clarified that he was misquoted and the question was whether he was as good as he was in 2018, to which the Spaniard had replied that he was better.
Fernando Alonso: Fighting for podiums will be a good year
When Alonso was asked about what he would call a good year at Alpine, he pointed to fighting for Q3 and podiums. Talking about his expectations, Alonso said:
" It depends on where we are, first of all, how competitive we feel after the first couple of weekends but I feel a happy 2021 season would mean being regular in the points, fighting for Q3, having the possibility to fight for podiums like Renauld did last year with 3 podiums is what I think will be a good season for us."
It would be interesting to see how prepared and competitive Alonso is on his return and how he would fare against his teammate Esteban Ocon driving the Alpine F1 car.