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Fernando Alonso produced a few moments of magic during his time with Ferrari. The Spaniard left the Italian constructor in 2015, having garnered plenty of respect from the team, including ex-sporting director, Massimo Rivola.
Speaking to Il Foglio, Rivola, who heads the Aprilia MotoGP department, recalled how Alonso showed a knack for reading races better than even the strategists sitting in the pit box. The Italian said:
“No one can read the races like he can. He often made us feel like idiots on the pit wall because he saw things before us. We were sitting in front of the computers and he was doing something completely different, yet he understood things before others did. He is one of the drivers from whom you learn a lot.”
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The Spanish driver almost won the title twice in 2010 and 2012 only to lose out in the last race of the season to Sebastian Vettel.
Leclerc shows similarities to Fernando Alonso
Massimo Rivola, who took over as the head of Ferrari's Driver Academy in 2016, feels Charles Leclerc has striking similarities to Fernando Alonso when it comes to racing. Comparing the two, Rivola said:
“It was nice to work with him. We knew right away that he was champion material. In a way he reminded me a lot of Alonso: he always wanted to win and he couldn’t accept loss. He couldn’t have taken that seriously. We worked on that, but also on managing fear, anger and thinking about his mistakes.”
He then went on to add, saying:
“On average you can make one mistake in fifteen corners, but you can’t think about that in the next fourteen corners. He’s done a great job and he’s gotten a lot better. And I think the tragedies he’s been through, from Jules Bianchi to his father, have made him even stronger.”
It's always interesting to see how similar some of these top-tier drivers are when it comes to their intrinsic characteristics. Alonso was truly an elite driver during his time at Ferrari. Now, Leclerc stands out as Ferrari's biggest hope when it comes to winning the title.
It does need to be seen whether the Monegasque driver will be able to win the title that has eluded Ferrari since 2007.
