Marcin Budkowski the executive director at Alpine has confirmed what many have suspected in the past few weeks about 2-time world champion, Fernando Alonso. He revealed that the gritty Spaniard is back to his best which means he is in a shout to win the world title if he's given a competitive car.
"Definitely. It took him a few races, but he was conscious of it, and he worked hard with the team to rebuild that confidence and that performance, and now I think he's just there, extracting the maximum from the car," said Budkowski when asked about Alonso after the British GP.
At Silverstone, especially during the sprint race, Alonso unleashed his skill, jumping through the grid from P11 to P5. Eventually, he dropped down to P7, but his performances since Monaco have been stellar.
"It was quite impressive to see him drive in Austria. In the second race, the qualifying, he was really quick and without the unfortunate incident with Seb Vettel in qualifying [where he was blocked by his former title rival], we think he would have easily scored the third row on the starting grid in Austria, which says a lot about how he's back up to speed," added Budkowski.
Many believe Alonso hasn't fulfilled his potential as he has only won two world titles
Budkowski revealed that the Spaniard mainly returned to F1 looking at the new 2022 regulations which will improve the competitiveness of the smaller teams and will encourage more on track racing.
"Fernando, the main reason for his return is next year. That doesn't mean that he doesn't push as hard as possible this year, but he sees this year very, very much as a year to get back to his maximum level, but also work with the team, set up his crew and his habits, but also push the team and motivate them for next year," he said.
His comments come on the heels of the comments of the Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi who has indicated that Alonso's contract will be renewed for the 2022 season as he is starting to handily outperform his teammate Esteban Ocon.
Alonso according to many remains the best driver on the grid, even better than the likes of Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc and Vettel. Throughout his career only once Alonso has been beaten by a teammate. That was in 2007 when Lewis Hamilton made his mercurial debut at McLaren. The two clashed and even though they had equal points, Hamilton was ranked higher in the world championship rankings, through a technicality.
