Alonso: 'We won't be able to compare Leclerc with Verstappen for some years'

After winning two titles with Renault, Fernando Alonso will return to the team next year, which will now be renamed Alpine Racing F1. The Spaniard is well aware of the situation and doesn't expect a chance to win the title next year. "Mercedes will still win in 2021, Red Bull will take second place and it remains to be seen who comes in third. The real challenge is 2022," said Alonso in an interview with Corriere Della Sera.

The two-time world champion knows you need a good car to win in Formula 1 and therefore finds it difficult to compare Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and George Russell. "Russell's case is exemplary in explaining F1. In five days, not a hundred, he went from last to first. All that without a Divine touch, without meditating in Tibet or anything like that. All he had to do was get into a Mercedes".

An extraordinary talent

That makes it difficult to compare drivers according to the Spaniard. Still, he knows who he would fear the most of the three. "If we think about who Hamilton and Bottas see the most in their rear-view mirror, it is of course Verstappen. Leclerc is an extraordinary talent, but we won't be able to really compare them until a few years from now," concludes Alonso.