Alonso ill ahead of 400th start. Will skip Thursday events to focus on remainder of Mexican GP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Fernando Alonso is ill and unable to participate in Thursday activities at the Mexican Grand Prix, and Aston Martin said the Spaniard will rest ahead of his record 400th race.

The team said Alonso is “focused on feeling 100% for Friday” and plans to participate in Friday’s second practice session. His only scheduled events Thursday were media appearances, and no details of his ailment were released.

He did participate in some Wednesday sponsor appearances.

Alonso on Sunday is scheduled to make his 400th career F1 start, most in series history. He long ago set the record when he passed Kimi Räikkönen, who retired with 353 starts.

The 43-year-old Alonso is ninth in the driver standings with five F1 races remaining this season. He has 32 career victories and 106 podium finishes.

Alonso reflected on the mark earlier this week on the “On the Grid” podcast presented by F1.

“When I won the championship in 2006 and then I joined McLaren, I had a three-year contract for 2007, ’08 and ’09, and I was 99% sure that 2009 would be my last F1 season. That was my very clear plan in my head,” Alonso said. “When I signed that contract, in my head at that time, it was like a long-term contract and three years will feel maybe long, but this is the last.

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“I already fulfilled my dream. This is beyond my wildest imagination to be an F1 champion, so what else can I do here? I signed this contract with McLaren, hoped to win more championships, hoped to win more races, but after F1 there is a different life outside. I was thinking I will have a family, I will do normal things, normal days.”

Yet here he is — even after sitting out of F1 in 2019 and 2020 — and with a lifetime contract to remain at Aston Martin.

Rival drivers are amazed at the longevity of the two-time world champion.

“What an impressive career. Fernando breathes racing, eats racing, wakes up racing. When he has free time, he just goes go-karting. He just wants to drive and race all the time,” Esteban Ocon said. “I’ve talked about it for him, what motivates him. He just says he doesn’t know really what else to do. It’s been his life and he just enjoys racing all the time.

“He has nothing to prove anymore to anyone. He’s one of the best ever, clearly.”

Carlos Sainz Jr., a fellow Spaniard, said he was inspired by Alonso to chase F1 rather than follow his father into a career of rally racing.

“It is crazy to me to think when I was growing up, 9, 10 years old, he was already in F1. And now that I turned 30 myself, he’s still in Formula 1,” Sainz said. “Obviously he’s still here because he wants it and he has so much talent and speed still at his age that he can allow himself to keep choosing about what to do with his future and with his life, which in a competitive field of 19 other very hungry younger drivers, that says a lot.”

Alonso reminds Sainz of his own father, who still competes today.

“I have a very good example at home with my dad, still winning Dakars at 61, 62, so I know what it takes to have at home someone that is still hungry and very motivated about what he does and my dad is a perfect example,” Sainz said. “So I can see why Fernando has a very similar approach to things because you can tell they are made of racing. They cannot live without racing.”

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