After winning back-to-back world championships in 2005 and 2006, Fernando Alonso went through a dry spell. All this while, his hunger to win a third kept increasing. That hunger brought him to the oldest and the most successful F1 team of all time, Ferrari. The Spaniard joined the red team in 2010 and, despite being infamous for being impatient, stayed there until 2014. During his final year with the Prancing Horse, Lewis Hamilton had laid the foundation with Mercedes for one of the most dominant runs F1 has ever witnessed. Despite that, Alonso claims, the Silver Arrows wanted him to be on board and dump Hamilton on Ferrari.

Despite once being teammates, Alonso and Hamilton never shared the best camaraderie. Hamilton joined F1 through McLaren in 2007 when Alonso was already their star driver. The Briton, however, in his very first season, fought him foot to foot, scoring exactly the same points, finishing second behind Kimi Raikkonen by just one point. The rivalry got so fierce at one point that Fernando had to resort to some unconventional tactics to pip him. However, never would he have anticipated that their paths would cross once again.

In an interview with Radio Barcelona a few years back, when they asked him whether Toto Wolff approached Ferrari for a swap deal involving him and Hamilton, Alonso told, “I think that it was a moment of the championship that the circumstances arose for that idea. Well, it was tried, somehow. But, Ferrari didn’t want at that time. They were also in negotiations with me to try to extend the contract until 2019. That was the offer that I had on the table. In the end, well, I wasn’t convinced.”

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All these years, Fernando kept searching for the car that could once again get him to glory. Looks like the move to Aston Martin could turn out to be a fruitful one.

Fernando Alonso hailed for finally making the right choice with Aston Martin move

Jumping ship way too often during his long F1 career, Fernando has gained quite the notoriety for being an F1 nomad. However, after all these years, it looks like he has finally found the destination that can give him a fair chance at the championship if not this year, then a couple of years down the line. The Spaniard won a podium finish in a spectacular fashion in Bahrain and that has left Damon Hill mighty impressed.

The former F1 champion on a Sky Sports show said, “His reputation didn’t help him, he made decisions when he should have made others, but he certainly made the right choice this time around with Aston Martin, so his joy was evident. But that guy is a master.” [Translated using Google]

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It will be interesting to see how much Fernando can make out of the opportunity he has got his year. Expecting a world championship straight away would be a tough ask. But giving Ferrari and Mercedes a run for their money for the 2nd place is definitely on the cards.