“My privacy was gone”: 32x F1 race winner Fernando Alonso relives 'magical moment' of winning his first race in Hungary

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso mentioned that winning the first of his 32 race wins in F1 in Hungary in 2003 was a 'magical' moment in his life but it took away his privacy.

The Spaniard was driving for the Renault F1 team in his first season with them after sitting out the 2002 season. While explaining how he got his first race win in Budapest all those years ago in his pre-race conference for the 2023 Hungarian GP this weekend, Fernando Alonso said:

"The first victory was a magical moment in my life and it changed everything a bit. In that qualifying we had put in fuel for the first stint of the race, so on Saturday night we thought we were very light on fuel and that the race would develop differently."

"We thought 5th place or the podium was a realistic goal, but in the end, we even won. It was a bit of a surprise, but we were all happy. That victory changed many things in my life, especially off the track and in Spain. My privacy was gone." [Translated by Google]

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Fernando Alonso previews his 2023 Hungarian GP chances

The Aston Martin F1 driver stated that he and the team are confident of getting back on form after two disappointing results in the past two races.

Fernando Alonso said:

“We have some hope for this weekend after some suffering experienced in Austria and Silverstone, so let's hope it can go better. There is more confidence due to the track and the track characteristics which are similar to those of the circuits in which we did well."

"High-speed corners and straights are probably not the strengths of our package, and Silverstone, as well as the Red Bull Ring, was a clear example. We hope to return to a bit more competitive performance, although our main rivals have improved their package and will also be very strong here. It will be difficult, but we hope to have fun."

Fernando Alonso also gave his take on the new qualifying format for this weekend and added:

“It won't change things much - he reiterated - we have to use a certain type of tire during each qualifying segment, but it will be the same for everyone, so it should be a factor that won't change things too much. We will save a couple more sets, because instead of 11 we will have 13, so 2 more sets for each driver can bring significant savings to F1, so there is a reason behind this choice."

Hopefully, Fernando Alonso and the team can get back to their early season form and notch another podium in 2023.