Yahoo Autos Here's What Fernando Alonso Wants To Do When He's Done With Formula 1
For most of us, getting a one-of-110 car is special enough. Fernando Alonso is not most of us. When Aston Martin offered a new Valour model to its F1 driver, he suggested some changes. One thing led to another, which led to christening the new, even more exclusive Valiant with a production run of 38 units – one for each of Alonso’s F1 wins. The two-time world champion’s input went beyond the typical paint-and-leather customizing that the other 37 Valiant owners (already selected, in case you wondered) will be offered. To dive into what Alonso asked for, what he thinks of the car, and what he plans to do when he eventually hangs up the racing helmet, we sat down for a roundtable interview at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Here’s what we learned. [This interview has been edited for clarity.]
If you give a mouse a piece of cheese, but with an F1 driver and a V-12 road car
"Firstly, I wanted the Valour but then I asked if it could be a little bit different. I'm a big fan of aerodiscs and some other features on road cars and I asked the team if they could make a special version for me… so when we reviewed the list of things that I would love to change, they said okay, maybe it's better to make a full new car with a new name and we just make a limited edition. So yeah, I said why not? And then from that point, we started working on some aerodynamic devices that the Valiant has, more power, less weight, everything that the racing driver loves to have and yeah, I think the final product is a piece of art, moving."
Save the Manuals
The Valiant, like the Valour, comes with a manual transmission. With EVs making pure speed a pointless pursuit, Aston Martin made a deliberate statement about the connection to the car inherent in shifting for yourself. Alonso, presumably, could have ordered the car with paddle shifters like in his race car, but for him, the six-speed manual is both nostalgic and timeless.
"I think that this is a collectible car, and it's something that I want to drive in five years’ time, in 10 years’ time, in 50 years’ time and have the feeling of how everything started and my passion driving road cars started when I got my license. You know, I waited for a long time – since you are 14 or 15, you're waiting for the day that you are 18 and finally you can drive cars. I was just in different single-seaters, I was driving full speed but you are always waiting for your license. So that first moment that you have the freedom of being alone in a car and taking the highway or going to a restaurant or something by your own is something that you don't you don't forget. Having the manual with a V-12 car is something that I think has more appeal than having a normal automatic."
F1 drivers are just like us, driving to the airport to go to work
No, not really, but it turns out Alonso actually does drive his own cars.
"I live in Monaco. So I use maybe more scooter than cars but I still drive often to places, to the airport. Every single week we have traveling so I need to take my car to the airport. I leave it there, I take it on Sunday back home. And yeah, I still drive road cars often."
The hardest parts were the exposed gearshift and the extreme weight savings
According to Alonso, everything he asked for turned into reality. Including a few really hard challenges, but Aston Martin’s Q division was up to the task.
"You know the normal answer is no at the beginning, but then the team is clever enough to find ways. I think especially the gear stick to be exposed like that initially was not possible, because it was a big job, and has to change a lot of the structures and things like that. But then now this is a nice feature, I think, that the car has. Some of the aerodynamic devices on the floor; the front splitter and the diffuser were a challenge because… for a road car you need to go over speed bumps.
"Some of those [things] were a challenge or were a question mark if it was worth putting those into a road legal car. But at the end, everything came alive and the result is more or less everything that we asked for. And the car is 100 kilos less than the Valour which is a big number to achieve. Initially when you propose 100 kilo less is something that immediately says no, and you need to take one kilo here, two kilos and a half there. You can drop 20, but 100 is a is a big task, but eventually it was achieved."
A little help from the F1 team went a long way
Much like how his race car is put together by a team of specialists, Alonso left the road car engineering to the experts. And in this case, it led to some crossover between Silverstone and Gaydon.
"Personally, I think the interaction between the Aston Martin F1 and the Aston Martin road car [teams] has been a little bit closer than ever for this car in terms of using some of the materials that we use in the F1 team. Some of the weight savings that we do, especially on the F1 team, is just on the highest part of the car because you can lower the center of gravity. So places like the cockpit, the seat, the steering wheel, the console, those are key places in the F1 [car] because you lower the center of gravity, and I think they feed that into the road car version and the seat and the cockpit is quite a big change from the Valour to the Valiant."
Alonso’s not about to start making road cars when he retires
The Spanish driver might be proud of his influence on the Valiant, but he said full-time road car development doesn’t interest him when asked.
"I will say no, because I think it's much more complex to design road cars than help a racing team on a weekend, which is maybe more where I can help Aston Martin in the future. I will race for few more years, but my Aston Martin contract is for long term and after my driving duties I can help the team, as I said, more in our race weekend. Helping the drivers to go into the weekend and different phases of the calendar to stay fit, to stay focused. Weekend decisions, race decisions, intermediate tires, wet tires. I think I'm more useful in that area than road cars but I will be happy always to test cars, give my input."
Yes, he’s turned into quite the Aston Martin fan
"I have the Aston Martin [Vantage] DTM, from the old Class 1 from 2019. And the Valkyrie, obviously, it’s going to be delivered in two weeks time. My birthday is the 29th of July. So maybe that's a good timing. And now the Valiant, and I'm also looking for a DB5.
"It's a moment of my life that I'm really looking forward to, having a small collection and Aston Martin is known for highly collectible cars and I think Valiant goes into that segment and is one of the toys that I will have.
"I'm more and more into the brand now. I mean, always a big fan but I think lately with some of the products that were in the market, I think it's a step up from the past and I think the brand is still very exclusive. Some of the luxury brands so some of the brands that I worked for in the past went into a different direction, bigger numbers. I like these types of luxury cars to be exclusive and to treat the customers like unique customers, and you are very special to them. And I think Aston Martin is one of those that are taking care of the customer. So I feel that I share some of those values. When you buy a car of this price, when you buy a car that has this kind of performance, you want to be treated as one of, even if you are only 37 or you are 1000, but no more than that number."
Alonso says F1 drivers aren’t trying to one-up each other with their personal cars
"Not really but in a way we all know what the others have in their garage. We follow a little bit from a distance what they have… All of them, they love the Valkyrie, Max has one… I will wait for him outside the tunnel, in August. I mean, this is something that we all love. We are enthusiastic about cars and we drive the best cars in the world every two weeks, but in our normal-day life we want to drive a powerful car as well."
Predictably, his Valkyrie will be British Racing Green
Alonso says he ordered the coupe version of Aston Martin’s hypercar, "And I just went for the Formula One colors, just wanted to have something that is the closest to F1. I drive the Aston Martin every two weeks and I wanted the Valkyrie with exactly the same green and the touches of lime."
As for the DB5 Alonso is looking for...
"I would love to have maybe the gray, silver-gray, you know, the classic one, but some of the proposals, they have blue, there are greens. I will look into that but as original as possible."
But even with James Bond’s car, he has no plans to be the next 007
"I would love to, but maybe I’m not that good at acting," Alonso says, but he might be up for some stunt driving. "Yeah, exactly for the most dangerous parts of the movie."
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