Fernando Alonso claims that thanks to his good physical condition, he could race in Formula 1 for several more years.
Although Fernando Alonso will celebrate his 43rd birthday this July, he remains an active F1 driver. The last driver who competed in the queen of motorsport at this age was Michael Schumacher twelve years ago.
Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that the Spaniard will remain in F1 even after the end of the upcoming season, given that Alonso certainly does not look like a fortysomething on the track. The native of Oviedo convinced everyone of this last year, when he clearly surpassed teammate Lance Stroll, who was 17 years younger, and finished in fourth place in the overall order of drivers.
In addition, according to Alonso, he is not losing his physical condition either, which is also to be proven by the results of the tests that the Aston Martin pilot completes every year.
“We usually do the same tests. We do the first part in the Italian Alps,” said Alonso, who is quoted by Autosport, saying that he has all kinds of historical data about his physical performance at his disposal. Whether it’s aerobic performance under load or at rest, or data about the ratio of fat and muscles in his body.
“While in some tests over the last five or six years there has been a small drop in performance, especially in terms of muscle, because you lose a bit of muscle from the age of thirty or thirty-five, this year we managed to restore it to the maximum level. And that’s partly thanks to the nutrition we changed,” explained the Spaniard.
“I tried to put on some muscle mass to compensate for the age factor without losing reactivity or endurance. They were surprising results, and I think very positive,” explained the pilot, who should reach the milestone of 400 grand prix races this year.
Alonso also claims that the earlier end of last season, which allowed him more time to prepare, and the fact that he has fewer marketing responsibilities are also behind the better results.
“This time I had time to myself and to drive other cars, which helped me enter this year’s final pre-season in the best shape of my life,” said the 2005 and 2006 world champion, who is confident he is physically fit to , to spend a few more years in F1.
“A few years ago, I would have said that the age limit would be 40 to 41. This winter I’ve been a bit above expectations in terms of all the physical tests and everything I’ve been doing, so I will say that if you’re motivated and want to put in the work, you can ride until you’re maybe 50,” concluded Alonso, adding that the bigger for him, the growing number of races is scarier than aging.
