"He's the sort of driver who's always there" - Fernando Alonso picked as the toughest competitor by former world champion

Former four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel claimed that Fernando Alonso was his toughest competitor during his time in the sport.

The German driver shared many iconic battles with the two-time world champion, including the legendary title battles in 2010 and 2012. In their latter years in the sport, the duo continued to push each other with Vettel driving for Aston Martin and Alonso racing for Alpine.

One of their best battles occurred in Suzuka in 2022 where Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso raced wheel-to-wheel till the checkered flag before the German clinched P6 and Alonso finished P7 in the wet conditions at the circuit.

In a recent quick-fire round with Talksport, Sebastian Vettel hailed Fernando Alonso as his hardest competitor, saying:

"Fernando. I had close championships and close with him throughout my career. Generally, he's the sort of driver who's always there, very competitive. I think he was the hardest competitor I faced."

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Sebastian Vettel on his dynamic with Fernando Alonso

Sebastian Vettel once stated that he 'didn't know' Alonso as a person as he hadn't spent that much time with him away from the track.

While appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast in 2022, the four-time world champion said that the two champions were 'too different' from each other. Vettel was quoted as saying (via RacingNews365):

"As a person, though, I don't know him, really. I wouldn't say we don't get along, I think we respect each other. But it's just never happened that we really got to know each other, spend time [together], or talk much outside racing."

"Maybe we are too different. We have raced as a common passion that excites us both, but then it just never happened that we, in all these years, really got to know each other."

The off-track dynamic between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso was seemingly not the same as his relationship with Lewis Hamilton. The German added:

"As much as I get on with Lewis and we have stuff to talk about and maybe some views that we share, with Fernando I might have these as well but we just never had the chemistry to really get into this. So I think, despite having the same big passion in our lives, we're probably two very different people."