Alonso Passed Up Brawn Seat in 2009

There are bad career choices and there are Really, Really bad career choices. While many think that Alonso made a big mistake in moving to McLaren-Honda from Ferrari, that really wasn’t the most regrettable choice he made. Former Mercedes AMG Petronas CEO Nick Fry revealed that the double world champion turned down a deal with Honda at the end of the 2008 season. The Honda team would soon become Brawn GP and hand Jenson Button his maiden world championship.

“Fernando Alonso should have been driving for Nick Fry and Ross Brawn in 2009,” said Fry “If he did, he would be four times world champion today! Fernando Alonso could be one of the lost talents. If he had made better decisions, he would have done much better,” Alonso was at the top of Ross Brawn’s shopping list because the latter knew that the relationship between the Spaniard and McLaren were fractured. But in the end, he signed with Renault for two years before moving to Ferrari.

In defence of Alonso’s decision, no one could have predicted that the 2009 rules would cause such a massive shakeup in the order. He was simply basing his decision on the pace of the Honda car. The 2008 Honda was inarguably a bad car, so he may not have been thrilled to get an offer from a team that finished 9th in the constructors standings. Sadly for him, that ship has sailed and all his fans can do is sit and rue what was a lost opportunity for the veteran to score another title.