Formula 1 is currently gearing up for the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix. Or, put another way, the ‘Fernando Alonso 400’.

The double world champion has held F1’s record for taking part in the most grands prix since he overtook Kimi Raikkonen back in 2022. In reaching 400, he’s the first human being to reach such a milestone.

“Not good for your back, for your neck, for your spine!” he half-jokingly replies when I ask him about the physical toll of that uncharted territory.

Classic Alonso. Who, on discussing his upcoming race start achievement in the Austin paddock last week, insists he would “would love to race half of the 400 and win one more championship or win more races”.

“Those are the important statistics that you want to achieve,” he adds.

Alonso’s drive for further F1 success is well known. But, as we’ll go on to see, there’s something far deeper and more human at play too. First, however, more stats. Because in four centuries of grands prix, plenty accrue. 

With Alonso having made his debut at the 2001 Australian GP, 36% of world championship F1 weekends have featured him plying his trade – as per data released by his Aston Martin squad this week, with assistance from Motorsport.com’s Forix guru, Joao Paulo Cunha.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen made their F1 debuts together at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix

Photo by: Sutton Images

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Alonso has completed more than 72,750 laps in F1 weekend action and test sessions – including 21,578 race laps. He’s done 735 F1 pitstops. His record against his F1 team-mates stands at 292:107 in qualifying and, with 20 double DNFs for the teams he’s raced for since starting out with Minardi, 262:117 in GP races.

His F1 sabbatical yielded two Le Mans 24 Hours wins – the last of which, in 2019, is his most recent race victory in any category – a World Endurance Championship crown and a 24 Hours of Daytona win.

There is, however, a certain stat that needs examining here. How, thanks to his long career, which included racing in an era where such things were more common, several DNS stats appear on his record.

Forix therefore has Alonso officially reaching 400 GP starts at 2024’s Qatar round next month, but he’s celebrating the milestone this weekend as he wants to count the three events where he turned up and put the work in, only to be thwarted. In the case of the 2017 Russian GP, this happened on the formation lap in his McLaren.

“[Reaching 400 grands prix] shows my love for the sport and the discipline of trying to perform at a very high level for 20-plus years,” Alonso explains.

“Hopefully I can celebrate a good weekend in Mexico. [I’m] not cheering for the next 400, because it will never happen, but at least 40 or 50 more with the next two years [at Aston] coming.” 

He outlines how “it’s not a problem of keeping up with the youngsters in terms of physical conditions” and that it’s “more mentally – travelling, events – and [other] pressure that is probably the thing that hits you harder and probably stops you racing at one point”. But amongst this there’s also something rather revealing. And very interesting.

“It’s that hope that next year is going to be your year,” he says of why he’s heading into his 22nd and 23rd seasons in F1, given his latest contract signed back in April. “That it keeps you alive and it keeps you motivated.”

Fernando Alonso won both of his F1 championships with Renault in 2005 and 2006

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

After 21 F1 seasons so far across three distinct stints – where he took his world titles in two, fought relentlessly for another in three others – these words disclose the disappointment Alonso felt at the times he knew, almost immediately, that that third crown wasn’t happening in a particular campaign.

We know this from the words of his longtime friend and colleague, Pedro de la Rosa, who discussed Alonso’s achievements in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com during the US GP last weekend.

“He always says to me, ‘the day I’m most nervous, the whole season, is the day of the shakedown’,” explains the 104-time F1 race starter, who first met Alonso when his fellow Spaniard first raced for McLaren in 2007, when de la Rosa was the team’s test driver.

“He says, ‘Because the day of the shakedown, I know what type of season is ahead of me’. He’s just phenomenal in feeling the car straightaway after two laps.”

The biggest change de la Rosa – these days an Aston team ambassador – says he has spotted in Alonso since 2007 is how “he has improved his English massively”.

“He has no language barrier anymore,” de la Rosa adds. “His accent is very bad, like mine – very Spanish. But actually his vocabulary is incredibly extensive. He’s not shy to use the English language in front of as many people as possible.

“And he has understood, from what I’ve seen, the importance of being a leader. The leader has to have the quality of saying the things that other people can only think about. And that’s where Fernando has realised that to become the true leader, he has had to improve on that area.

“Possibly in an unconscious way, just by experience. But he has become an extremely strong leader, always with the correct message to the people. Because to win in Formula 1, you need 800 people pushing every day, 24 hours a day. And I think that’s where Fernando is extremely good now, very complete.

Ex-F1 racer Pedro de la Rosa (left), has worked with Alonso several times during his career

Photo by: Mark Sutton

“He knows how to send a message across to all these people in English. His Italian is phenomenal as well and if he has to do it in Italian as well, he does it. But the basic difference from the Fernando I first met to the 2.0 Fernando – the latest Fernando – that from the one I have met in 2007, he has become a very complete leader.”

Much is made of Alonso’s self-aggrandisement. How, for example, when asked to pick the best drive of his first campaign with Aston in 2023, which bore eight podiums and a lost victory shot in Monaco, instead he picked his Monza race that year, where he finished ninth.

This was, Alonso said, because it was “one of those weekends where it seems that the performance from the car and myself – they were in a different dimension.”

But, from de la Rosa’s explanation, we can understand just how deliberately Alonso makes every point.

“Some people say he’s a negative driver,” de la Rosa adds. “He’s not negative. He’s critical. It’s different.

“Fernando is not a negative person. When the shit hits the fan, he’s the most positive person with inner strength you would ever see. But it’s the fact – that he’s very critical because he’s always thinking how he can be faster.

“His only main worry in motor racing is: ‘Is my car quick enough?’

This “passion”, as de la Rosa also puts it, explains much about why Alonso is still going in F1 after so long.

Why he spends his off-seasons taking part in 24-hour go-kart races – acting, per de la Rosa, as the “team manager” with “his Excel sheet, putting in all the lap times and just making sure that we do the best possible strategy”.

de la Rosa maintains that Alonso is not a negative individual, even if it can come across this way through his public statements

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

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His relentlessness can, however, be harder to understand at times. Take his spat with RB rookie Liam Lawson at Austin last weekend.

Lawson claimed Alonso threatened to “screw me” after they clashed in the Austin sprint event – with the pair snapped jawing at each other in parc ferme post-race. The main takeaway from the incident was how, overall, Lawson stood his ground – having forcefully had Alonso off the road in footage not aired on the main broadcast, which explains all the fury.

But Alonso then muscled his way by Lawson exiting the pits in GP qualifying later that day, which the New Zealander saw as him making good on his earlier word. Alonso said, amongst other things, afterwards of the incident: “Everyone on track is behaving as he wants and for me, today was unnecessary.

The incident highlights the marmite nature of Alonso’s character, which seasoned F1 fans will understand well. Some will never get why his drive leads him to act and speak in such ways. Others see the fire and admire. Many more focus solely on just the stunning racecraft and adaptability of an F1 legend, still producing highlights.

Yet that “hope” comment seemed to divulge something much deeper – around Alonso’s long-held and obvious desire to right the wrongs of those missing titles that inspire him seemingly ever onwards.

And perhaps it explains exactly why he’s still going, why he’s still fighting so hard and being ‘Fernando Alonso’.

In F1’s modern day uber-partisan, hot-take culture, many will disagree. But it’s a theory surely far more human – and therefore more interesting – that speaks to everyone’s inner ambitions and fears for their own lives.

Especially when they’ve found, as Alonso has at motorsport’s top level, and made a success of something they utterly love. An emotion, after all, that can lead to unpredictable places.

Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso had a bust-up at the United States Grand Prix

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“His natural habitat is inside the cockpit,” says de la Rosa. “That’s where he feels strong, and I think the fact that he feels so strong driving, he doesn’t want to do any other things.

“Because sometimes I ask him, ‘why wouldn’t you do another sport or another job or anything? You’re still very young. And he said, ‘but I won’t be as good as what I do right now’.

“That summarises his way of thinking very much. He knows he has an advantage. He likes to exploit it. And he enjoys being the best. Of feeling the best. Because it doesn’t mean he has to win every race. But he has to feel that he’s the best.”

No wonder Alonso’s ride is still ongoing. One of F1’s best characters, who seems to never want it to end.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Tony Stewart went to the Stewart-Haas Racing shop a couple of weeks ago and saw as many people as he could a month before the team shuts down.

“Knowing that when I left the building there, here’s some of those people I’ve known for 16 years, and I may never, ever see them again, unfortunately,” Stewart said on “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast. “I don’t know that it’s even bittersweet. It’s more bitter than sweet, I feel like. It’s a tough decision.

“But, you know, things in life change. Your priorities change and variables outside of your control change as well.”

In a pair of interviews with FOX Sports last week, one with Harvick on his podcast and another with FOX Sports Digital, Stewart talked about his rookie season in an NHRA top fuel dragster (we’ll write more on that in a couple of weeks) as well as the final weeks of SHR. 

Stewart was given half of Haas CNC Racing prior to the 2009 season to form Stewart-Haas Racing. A two-time Cup champion at the time, Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing for the opportunity to co-own a team. The idea was he could help bring experienced racing administrators as well as attract people willing to work for the organization.

In its 16 seasons, SHR has won 70 Cup races, including Cup titles in 2011 with Stewart and 2014 with Kevin Harvick.

Stewart thinks back to winning the all-star race in 2009 as the pivotal moment that has guided him the last 16 years through the end of his Cup career in 2016 and the seasons that followed.

“There were crew guys there that literally were in tears, and it really caught me off-guard,” Stewart said about the all-star win. “I just didn’t expect to see that. And it was people that had been with the Haas organization before I’d got there and worked on different teams that had never won a race, and here we are winning our first race as an organization.

“And what I realized for the first time since I had started Stewart-Haas and become a part of that, it wasn’t about me anymore. It was about sitting there enjoying watching these guys that were so overwhelmed and overjoyed with winning a race that it brought tears to their eyes. And it was like, ‘This is way bigger than anything that has to do with me. This is about all of us and what we can accomplish together.’”

It was with that mindset that Stewart, facing significant sponsorship and manufacturer-support challenges, opted to get out of NASCAR Cup ownership. Gene Haas will keep one of the four Cup cars and both Xfinity programs and operate it as a new organization, Haas Factory Team. The team told employees at the end of May it would cease operations, impacting more than 300 employees (some employees could return with Haas Factory Team).

“The reason we did the announcement early in the season was to try to take care of all of our people,” Stewart said. “I got so blamed for people losing their jobs. Well, there’s companies left and right that shut down. Look at COVID [in 2020] — how many people had to shut down? Nobody was screaming about how employees weren’t taken care of and what it did to their families.

“We did what we did to take care of our people, and we created great severance packages for them to take care of them and their families. … I would say over 80 percent of the employees at SHR have found homes for next year.”

Stewart, who owns his NHRA team and sprint-car teams, said 16 years as a race team in one series is a solid run.

“The bashing I got online and on social media was very unjust through the process,” Stewart said. “It’s easy to sit on your ass, on a chair, on your couch in your mom’s house and sit there and tell us how we’re doing it wrong. But nobody can seem to sit there and come in on Monday morning and tell us how to do it right.

“I feel like our group did a great job of taking care of our people the best that we could, and with the right intentions and with the attitude of our employees came first — and that’s what the focus has been this year, is making sure that we do everything to take care of our employees in a season that’s a transition year for everybody.”

Even with the transition, Chase Briscoe won at Darlington to make the playoffs in SHR’s final hurrah. It snapped a 73-race winless streak for the organization.

“Obviously, for the building, the last couple years have been a huge struggle, and just trying to get a car in the winner’s circle again was tough,” Stewart said. “But to see Chase get that done at Darlington and win a crown jewel race and get himself in the playoffs, that was a huge boost for the building.”

Stewart said he didn’t know that the charter situation would lead to such angst between teams and owners over the summer, but watching 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sue NASCAR is something he is glad he doesn’t have to be involved with as a Cup team owner.

“With their battle with NASCAR and the direction that things are going, it’s not a direction that I want to be a part of,” Stewart said on the Harvick podcast. “This is the right time. This was never a part of a master plan.

“But as this year has gone on, this has become very clear that this is the right time for me to get out of the sport. There’s things that I see that I definitely don’t like. And I’m happy doing the stuff I’m doing now. I’ve always been somebody that’s ran all kinds of different series.”

Stewart indicated the challenges of piecing together several sponsorships for one car and not having other companies to create enough business-to-business relationships was just too much for SHR to try to operate a successful team on the track. Stewart said he had a lot of respect for the NASCAR-owning France family and was appreciative of the opportunities he had racing the greats Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Harvick among them.

“The sport’s going to be healthy, it’s going to survive,” Stewart said. “It always has. It always will. But I’m happy at this point in my life to make this change. … It wasn’t that way at the beginning of the year.

“We had different reasons for why we had to shut down at the end of the season, but as time has gone on and watching the owners and NASCAR fight and just the chaos that’s going on over there, I’m fine being done with this at the end of the year.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Formula 1 fans may have spotted a Netflix crew in the paddock at the US Grand Prix — but this time, it wasn’t for “Drive to Survive.” The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC), fresh off their own Netflix debut, returned to the Circuit of the Americas for their annual pre-race performance, with cameras capturing their behind-the-scenes experience. 

The elite DCC squad is in the midst of a surge in popularity not unlike the so-called ‘Drive to Survive effect,’ which catapulted F1 into the mainstream American consciousness. Their new Netflix docuseries, “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” introduced viewers to the 36, ultra-talented women who defied Ivy League-level acceptance rates to make the team, and turned them into social media stars.

Jada Mclean, a fifth-year DCC veteran, who waved the chequered flag as Charles Leclerc claimed victory in Austin, described the surprising parallels between F1 drivers and the world-renowned squad. “I watched ‘Drive to Survive’ and thought it was so special seeing what goes into being an F1 driver and all the sacrifices they make,” she explained. “It’s similar as a cheerleader: there’s a lot of people who don’t realize what we’re sacrificing to do what we do on Sundays. I think we probably understand each other as part of this Netflix family, being followed day-in and day-out through our lives as professional athletes, but also our lives outside [of the sport].”

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have been performing at the race for over a decade

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

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When the Cowboys gave Netflix cameras unparalleled access to the DCC throughout the 2023-24 football season, the show charted every aspect of their experience inside the walls of AT&T Stadium. It seems the second season — which is yet to be announced by Netflix — will also follow their lives away from the football field, including the organisation’s decade-long relationship with the US Grand Prix. 

Shelly Roper-McCaslin, head of special projects at the DCC, has witnessed the F1 boom first-hand since the team began performing at COTA in 2013. “We’ve participated in F1 activities since the second year of the race and the sport has grown significantly in that time,” she said. “I suppose we’re Netflix cousins now.” 

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform at the front of the grid prior to the start of the US Grand Prix

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

This year, the team brought their signature “Thunderstruck” routine, which kicks off every Cowboys home game, back to the grid. The reception the team received – from enthusiastic cheers in the grandstands to celebrities asking for selfies in the paddock — mirrors F1’s experience in the US following the release of ‘Drive to Survive’ five years ago. For Reece Weaver, one of the breakout stars of ‘America’s Sweethearts,’ the Netflix effect has been both surreal and humbling. “There’s definitely been a shift within the team, knowing that there’s a little more of a magnifying glass on us,” Weaver explained. “But it also shows us that it’s a lot of responsibility to be role models and mentors. It’s such a privilege to look up and see a little girl in the crowd wearing your uniform.”

Mclean echoed the sentiment. “Fans have a new appreciation for what we do now that they’ve seen all the hard work that goes into it.” She went on, “It’s definitely been different since the show, people are much more excited to see us because they feel like they know us a little better. We kind of feel like little celebrities, which is fun. Cheerleading is such a short chapter in our lives, so we’re all trying to soak in these moments and wear the uniform with pride.”

Defending MotoGP World Champion Francesco Bagnaia has thrown his support behind WorldSBK standout Nicolo Bulega as his candidate to replace Fabio di Giannantonio at VR46 Racing for the final two events of the 2024 MotoGP season.

The satellite squad is presently mulling options as it prepares to lose di Giannantonio for the concluding Malaysian and Valencia events, the Italian having chosen to curtail his season in favour of undergoing surgery on his troublesome shoulder injury.

At present, paddock chatter ahead of this weekend’s Thailand Grand Prix suggests former Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone is in line for the seat, five years on from his last appearance in the top-flight prior to him serving a four-year sentence for doping offences.

While would-be Ducati stablemates Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez each welcome the prospect of a return to MotoGP for Iannone, the 2022 and 2023 world champion has nominated Bulega as his preferred choice for the vacant seat.

A former member of the VR46 Academy, Bulega gave a star turn in his rookie WorldSBK campaign with the factory Ducati team, scoring six victories en route to the runner-up spot in the final standings.

It is a performance Bagnaia believes Ducati should reward with a shot at a MotoGP debut, even if he is cautious about the challenge of stepping in for either Bulega or Iannone after Alvaro Bautista struggled to adapt during a one-off outing in Sepang last season.

“I hope to see Bulega on this bike because when you have the possibility to try a MotoGP bike you have to take it and I think Iannone will enjoy it a lot. 

“Sepang is not an easy track, we saw that last season with Bautista, but I think he will enjoy the MotoGP and will take it as a fun moment.”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia’s views notwithstanding, there was a positive reaction to the notion of Iannone getting the chance to both return to MotoGP and Ducati.

The Italian spent four seasons with the Borgo Panigale marque, notching up one win and seven podiums during his stint. However, his career was derailed in 2019 while racing with Aprilia when he failed a drugs test that would earn him a ban from racing for four years.

Nevertheless, despite the extended period of non-action, Iannone made a triumphant return to competition this season in WorldSBK aboard the privateer Go Eleven Ducati, achieving one win and five podiums. 

For Pramac’s Martin and Gresini’s Marquez, Iannone has earned the chance to race in the premier class once more.

“For me, it is good to see him back in MotoGP,” points leader Martin said. “After what he went through, then he went to WorldSBK and won a race, so he is demonstrating that he is still on a good level. So maybe he is still fast and I think it is a good opportunity to show people that he is still strong.

“For me it would be nice to see him there, because we had good fights,” added Marquez. “Of course it is super difficult to be fast in one race after four years. 

“Maybe he is superman and can do it, because he is a very good talent but it will be nice and I think the approach is like a present.”

Oliver Solberg says returning to the World Rally Championship’s top tier next year is his “dream”, but is wary not to make the same “mistake I did last time”.

The WRC2 points leader is yet to secure a WRC seat for next season but could have options to graduate to Rally1 or remain in the second tier for a third consecutive campaign.

Solberg’s best chance to make the step back to Rally1 next year is likely to come from M-Sport-Ford, with the team’s plans for its two Ford Pumas for next season, “up in the air”, according to team principal Richard Millener.

M-Sport could have both seats open for 2025 with its lead driver Adrien Fourmaux heavily linked to a move away from the British squad to pilot the third factory Hyundai entry.

Solberg was linked to a Rally1 drive with M-Sport for this season before opting to sign a deal with Skoda to compete in WRC2, driving for the Toksport outfit.

The 23-year-old admitted that making the leap back to Rally1 next year would be “difficult” and “attractive”, but ensuring he is making the right step is critical to the decision.

Solberg’s most recent Rally1 experience came in 2022 when the Swede endured a difficult part-time campaign piloting Hyundai’s third car that yielded four top-10 finishes and three retirements.

Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

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“I don’t think it [2025] looks very different to what I have now, and obviously the dream is to be in Rally1 but I think that will be difficult, but you never know,” Solberg told Autosport/Motorsport.com.

When asked about the possibility of vacant seats at M-Sport, he added: “If I think about my short-term future, maybe it would be very attractive, but long-term my dream is to stay in the WRC for a long time and I don’t want to do the same mistake I did last time with Hyundai.

“Obviously, [with] what happened there, you are very careful about what decision you make. I think M-Sport could be great and they have had a great season, it is difficult.

“I am one of the youngest [drivers here] but it is big step for your career and you want to be sure that you make the right one this time.”

Solberg maintains that he has “cool” options to continue in WRC2 if graduating to Rally1 next year doesn’t eventuate.

“I think I have very good options for WRC2 and I am extremely lucky with the options I have been offered,” he added.

“It is something that I don’t think anyone has got in WRC2 to be honest, for sure that is very attractive, but my dream is Rally1, but at least for WRC2 I have some cool options.”

Solberg’s stock could yet rise as the driver could secure a maiden WRC2 title should results go his way at the Japan season finale next month.

The Skoda driver currently leads the standings but won’t be competing on Japan’s asphalt roads having already completed his seven point-scoring events.

Solberg will however secure the title if rival Sami Pajari fails to finish either first or second in Japan.

“Obviously I love rallying so I will probably watch every stage [on TV at home],” he added. “But, normally when I watch its goes good for my competitors, so maybe I will just go and disappear somewhere.

“We will see, it could be very exciting.”

Honda is “prepared for some conflicts” with design legend Adrian Newey on how to best approach the 2026 Formula 1 regulations as they join forces at Aston Martin.

Newey’s arrival at the Silverstone-based outfit for next year was revealed in September following months of speculation over his landing zone in F1.

The Briton had announced his departure from Red Bull earlier in the season after almost two decades with the Milton Keynes-based squad, one of a number of key members of staff to seek employment elsewhere in recent years.

Honda had been in partnership with Red Bull since 2019, albeit leaving F1 in an official capacity at the end of the 2021 season and instead becoming a technical partner to the world championship-winning constructor.

The marriage faced the biggest issue, teams other than Ferrari, Mercedes and Alpine have in that the requirements from the chassis designers and the power unit design team can often clash, meaning compromises need to made rather than having a harmonious build process.

But, in spite of that, Red Bull and Honda have won each drivers’ championship since 2021 and taken the constructors’ title in the past two seasons.

Aston Martin will face the same task when teaming up with Honda for F1’s new era of technical regulations in 2026, but speaking to Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview Honda Racing Corrporation president Koji Watanabe said he hopes Newey’s arrival could spark a replication of the Japanese marque’s achievements this decade with Red Bull.

Lawrence Stroll, Toshihiro Sanbe,,President and CEO Honda Motor,Koji Watanabe, President of Honda Racing Corporation,,Martin Whitmarsh

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“We’re pleased to see Aston Martin taking steady steps to strengthen their competitiveness as a team,” said Watanabe.

“We’re very encouraged that they have solidified their management structure, including Newey’s involvement.

“I’ve worked with Newey before, and he has an incredible passion for building fast cars.

“While we build the PU and they build the car’s chassis, there are times when our visions don’t always align.

“In such cases, there are conflicts between what the chassis team wants and what the PU team wants, but together, we’ve managed to create the best car in the world.

“With Newey now at Aston Martin, I expect similar challenges to arise, but I hope this will lead to the Aston Martin Honda team becoming the best in the world. We’re prepared for some conflicts. Of course, it’s not just with Newey.”