Alonso: When you don’t see the chequered flag, doesn’t matter which number

Alonso should've expected this outcome for his 400th F1 outing, as he suffered the same fate on his 200th race (Malaysia 2013) and his 300th race (Canada 2018).

Nevertheless, the Spaniard was celebrated by the fans, rivals, and the sport in general for this major milestone, but the end result was disappointing as he retired with overheated brakes due to debris getting stuck in the brake ducts of his Aston Martin AMR24.

"It was okay, the start was good," Alonso said after the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix. "Obviously a lot of action in front of us so we capitalized on that but apparently there was a bit of debris on the front brake ducts and the temperatures were over the moon.

"We tried to mitigate that, moving the brake balance rearwards and different actions, but it was still not under control so unfortunately we had to retire the car – a bit unlucky today," he lamented.

When asked if this particular DNF hurt more, Alonso responded: "It hurts always the same, to be honest, when you don’t see the chequered flag. It doesn’t matter which number.

"We are here to compete. In a way, when you have to retire the car it’s better when you are not in a super competitive weekend.

"It was maybe unlikely to score points today so hopefully more luck will come and we come back stronger on the next race and next year here," the 42-year-old concluded.