Throwback to Fernando Alonso's savage reply to Johnny Herbert: "I was world champion, you ended up as a commentator"

Back in 2016, Fernando Alonso took a dig at former F1 driver-turned-commentator Johnny Herbert, stating how he is a world champion and would not retire like the latter and become a commentator.

This was essentially a response to Johnny Herbert's comments after Fernando Alonso had to sit out the 2016 F1 Bahrain GP after the FIA deemed him unfit to race.

Before the final free practice session on Saturday, Alonso came up to Herbert while he was speaking on Sky Sports, shook his hand, and spewed:

"I will not retire, mate. I was world champion. You ended up as a commentator because you were not a world champion, mate."

To this, Johnny Herbert replied:

"I know, thank you very much, that's good, okay. I wasn't world champion... Happy man."

Prior to the fiery encounter, during Friday's practice sessions, Johnny Herbert explained how a passionate F1 driver would always express his urge to get back into the car after an accident or incident. He then connected that to how Fernando Alonso will not be driving in the Bahrain GP.

Herbert said:

"He had the incident in Barcelona and he didn't go racing but when a driver has an accident usually they want to get back in the car - when I crashed I told everyone I wanted to get back in the car. But even with his crash in Australia, we still didn't get that."

He added:

"The mistake we saw in Australia was an error on his side. One incident that flashes before my mind is how similar it was to the Michael Schumacher-Jean-Eric Vergne incident in Singapore. I know personally you get to a certain point in your career and you start to go downhill. You can be at the top of your game for a long time, but there will be a drop-off."

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Fernando Alonso happy with most of his career choices in F1

Millions of F1 fans and pundits frequently discuss how Fernando Alonso made some questionable decisions in F1, especially regarding shifting teams.

However, the man himself recently clarified that apart from four years in McLaren, he is happy with every single decision he made, since it gave him lots of podiums, race wins and even championships. Alonso explained (via Channel 4):

“I would say that of 20 years of my career, I had four frustrating years in a McLaren-Honda that was not competitive. But in 16 years of my life I’ve been in Formula 1, fighting for podiums and wins and this is something that is quite unique. Sometimes, I feel from the outside that people even are a little bit sorry for my career moves [but] the facts don’t tell me that way, so sometimes I’m happy to clarify that.”

This clarifies that even though the Spaniard was unable to succeed and win championships with some teams, he was happy with the overall decision of joining them.

However, it is safe to say that Fernando Alonso's move to Aston Martin might be one of his best since he has already bagged two podiums in the first two races of the 2023 F1 season.