Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan says he blames Fernando Alonso for not having had greater success, adding that the Spaniard could have as many as eight World Championship titles by now if he had made better career moves. Alonso won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, making him at the time F1's youngest two-time World Champion. Referencing Alonso's famous overtake on Michael Schumacher around the outside of the fearsome 130R corner at Suzuka in 2005, Jordan recalled how convinced he was that the Spaniard would win multiple world titles. "I remember seeing Fernando Alonso pass Michael Schumacher from the outside on a damp track on a really difficult corner in Suzuka, Japan, and I said 'oh my god, how can he get away with that?'," Jordan told OLBG . "Alonso pulled the move off and I thought from there that he was destined for greatness. "I actually blame him for not winning four, six or maybe even [being an] eight-time World Champion – he should have picked his teams better. "In his 30s, Alonso went for the money when he could have gone a different route. "Now he's come back to the understanding that he has a team around him that has enough to make the car finish well, but he won't beat the Red Bulls. I believe he will win races this year."
How Alonso's F1 career unravelled
Following his early success at Renault, Alonso was considered a favourite for the 2007 title when he made a high-profile move to McLaren to partner then-rookie Lewis Hamilton. However, as Hamilton and Alonso contrived to take points off each other in an aggro-ridden campaign, both lost out on the title to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, with intra-team relations deteriorating to such an extent that Alonso left McLaren at the end of the season. A two-year stint back at a Renault team suddenly shorn of potential saw Alonso out of title contention, but big things were expected of the Spaniard when he moved to Ferrari in 2010 to replace Raikkonen. Though he came agonisingly close in 2010 and 2012, Alonso would never win a world title with Ferrari, and could only watch as Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull swept all before them for four consecutive years. Alonso left Ferrari at the end of a winless 2014 season, having seemingly given up hope that the Scuderia would ever give him a title-winning car, and moved back to McLaren for 2015, but this was to prove by far his worst career move, as the Woking squad struggled badly with a slow and unreliable Honda power unit. Across the next four years, Alonso would finish no higher than tenth in the Championship standings, and with no suitable seats at top teams available, the Spaniard elected to step back from F1 at the end of 2018. After two successful years in the World Endurance Championship, Alonso was tempted back to F1 with Alpine in 2021, and though he showed flashes of the old magic, a single podium finish was the best he could muster across two seasons with Team Enstone. Now at Aston Martin, Alonso has begun 2023 strongly, with two third-place finishes in as many races, but Red Bull appear too far out of reach for the Spaniard to consider a title tilt this year, and Alonso is now closing in on a decade since his last Grand Prix win at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
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