Alonso: Verstappen, Hamilton success due to F1 rule changes

Timing is King in F1. And it can be argued that seven-time F1 World Champ Hamilton lucked into Mercedes when the 2014 turbo-hybrid F1 rules kicked in. Ditto for soon-to-be three-time F1 WDC Verstappen at Red Bull when the 2022 F1 aero rules came into effect.

Speaking to Spanish news outlet Marca, Alonso reckoned: "When Hamilton went to Mercedes (2013 season), he didn't build anything to be champion. It was just a change of F1 rules that changed everything on the grid and pushed Mercedes to the top.

"I feel the same about Max. When he joined Toro Rosso and Red Bull. It is not a winning team because of him, it's just that another regulation change in 2022 has meant that they now win every race," lamented Alonso.

The well-traveled double F1 World Champion has had a fair share of teams built around him. Flavio Briatore gave him the best of the best during their time together at Renault. Two F1 titles in 2005 and 2006 were the rewards.

A move to McLaren in 2007, a plug-and-play top team at the time, failed for Alonso. A tumultuous year in which he was teammate to Hamilton that lasted one season. A spell at Renault followed, but by then the target was always Ferrari. When Maranello came calling, the Spaniard began a chapter which many thought would deliver a lot more than it did.

Ferrari built around him during his spell with the legendary Italian team, failed to deliver a single title. He was F1 World Championship runner-up three times in Red in the five seasons he spent with the Scuderia.

Thereafter a second McLaren stint was a disaster. No matter what he brought to the table with a "F2 Honda engine" he was doomed and led to his first F1 'retirement' after four seasons of pain on his second stint at Woking. A foray into World Endurance Championship (WEC) followed and brought him victory at Le Mans as well as the WEC title with Toyota Gazoo Racing. The unbeatable team of the time, which Alonso walked into at the right time. Alas not F1.

But, after his Netherland adventures, the bright lights of the top flight beckoned. With unfinished business, Alonso returned with his Alma Mater Renault aka Alpine. That lasted two seasons and can be described as mediocre at best. Blame it on circumstances.

Now, in 2023, with Aston Martin, Alonso has found a second-life so to speak. Thanks to a season peppered with podiums and a stronger car than he has since his Ferrari days. He is delivering.

Explaining the concept of a team building around a driver as some suspect Red Bull are doing with Verstappen; ditto that Mercedes did the same thing for Hamilton, Alonso ventured: "When we say that we can 'build teams around us' I don't understand it.

"This is a sport where technical decisions, regulations or the inspiration of the design office make more of a difference than your input, your comments, your personality or your driving. You just have to be in the right place at the right time. Because a lot of success still depends on luck," reckoned the 42-year-old.

As for Red Bull's remarkable 2023 F1 campaign, Alonso packed on the praise: "They're the best. In everything. Not just the fastest car. They have the fastest driver, who doesn't make mistakes. They make the fastest pit stops, the best strategies... At the moment they have no weak points.

"Max hasn't made any mistakes," noted Alonso. "He has 10 wins in a row and they have not been easy races: there was rain, red flags, stops, interruptions... and he does not falter. He has a good car, but the union is what makes the difference."

Amid an F1 career often described as one of dubious decisions, Alonso has got luck on his from the moment he phoned Lawrence Stroll to announce his availability for Aston Martin's 2023 campaign. History shows that since then, the 32-time Grand Prix winner has been a rejuvenated man. His seven podium celebrations this year are a delight to behold.

But amid the jubilation, Alonso tempers the argument that the new regulations have made F1 closer. Not really... the Aston Martin veteran told Spanish website Cadena Ser: “There are two views, on one hand is the new regulations have brought good things. For sure, we can follow with these cars much more closely than in the past.

“We also have a very tight grid, removing the two in front, which is what everyone is interested in. However, if you look at third on the grid, a non-Red Bull, to last place, sometimes moving into Q1 is very difficult because in four-tenths there are like 16 cars. So in this sense, equality has been achieved.

"On the other hand, something has failed, because of the last 25 races, 24 have been won by a Red Bull, that was not in any of the plans," ventured Alonso.

As for his own elusive #Win33 - he last won his home Spanish Grand Prox in 2013 - Alonso was asked if Red Bull can be beaten for that to happen: "They would need a couple of bad decisions to deviate a bit from the good direction they seem to find in the car."