Webber cautions that ‘magician’ Alonso might ‘pose a threat’ in 2022

If Alpine can nail the regulation changes for 2022, Mark Webber believes Fernando Alonso may return to the top of Formula One.

Mark Webber believes Fernando Alonso has all of his race-day abilities, and believes the Spaniard has a chance to return to the top of Formula One in 2022 provided Alpine can give him with a fast enough car.

Alonso returned to Formula One this year after a two-year hiatus, and he has shown no signs of slowing down as he prepares to replace Kimi Raikkonen as the eldest and most experienced driver on the grid when he retires at the end of 2021. As he s new to life in Formula One, Alonso has been a consistent points scorer, showing that all of his old wiliness is intact as he battled Lewis Hamilton in Hungary – a defence that proved critical for Alpine’s triumph with Esteban Ocon.

“Fernando is driving well,” Webber told the F1 Nation podcast.

“Has he got that last two tenths that Max [Verstappen] and Lewis [Hamilton] will have in qualifying? I don’t think so. Has he got the knowledge, the nous, and how to strip down and pull a race afternoon together? Unbelievable. The guy is still a bit of a magician, we know that.”

Alonso was tagged by Pierre Gasly when he attempted an audacious move around the outside of Turn 1 in Turkey, according to Webber.

“He loves positioning the car in the first sector, if you go back through all of his onboards he’s always sniffing around that outside anyway,” Webber said.

“It can be a bit of a high risk manoeuvre, Singapore all day long he’s down there, Barcelona [he] has a look, Malaysia… he’s the last guy you want to be hanging out with for two hours in your mirrors.”

When they were racing competitors in Formula 1, Webber, a long-time rival and friend of Alonso, remembered his own battles with the Alpine driver, who competed for Ferrari during the final years of Webber’s F1 career.

“That’s what Fernando is good at, whether he’s behind you, he will be very good at finding a way to create pressure in unconventional ways,” he said.

“And then, as we saw with Lewis in Budapest, when you’re trying to pass him, he is the driver that mixes it up the most. He will be constantly mixing it up and just changing how you get in a rhythm behind him. He is very, very good.

“So let’s see how next year goes with the new car, that’ll be interesting. The new car for him next year will be interesting, because this year he’s fine floating around where he is and Alpine are doing a good job with him. There’s no question about that. But next year will be fascinating. If they come out with a rocket he could be dangerous.”

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