Brawn ecstatic: "Great for the sport, for the fans, for everyone"

Fernando Alonso takes an F1 podium again after seven years. At the age of forty, the Spaniard shows he can still race with the frontrunners in F1. Ross Brawn is a fan of the Spaniard and waxes lyrical about the Alpine driver after the GP weekend in Qatar.

Alonso takes first podium since return from race

Alonso opted for a one-stop at Losail. It proved to be a risky strategy when the tyres of Valtteri Bottas, Nicholas Latifi and George Russell could not cope with the wear and tear of the Qatar tarmac. In an exceptionally controlled fashion, Alonso got his car over the line in third place.

The Spaniard was lucky that Sergio Perez dropped out in front of him with his second stop and that Bottas was unable to finish his race after the puncture, but he can still count on the title of driver of the day. He also gets this honour from F1 chief Brawn.

Brawn in ecstasy

In his column on F1.com Brawn writes, "That Alpine looked good all weekend. He was just enjoying himself so much. He's in his element. I'm a big fan of Fernando and I've always found it frustrating that, with his talent, he's only won two world titles."

"He's a man who is still in love with F1 and it shows." Alonso did not compete in F1 in 2002 and 2020 but has been part of the sport since 2001. The two-time world champion registered for 335 races and had just three 'did not starts' (DNS), driving a whopping 332 GPs.

Brawn: "Will it entice him to stay around for a while longer? Who knows? I think we all want Fernando around for a while. He’s driving very well. He deserves to be there, there’s no question about that. It’s great for the sport, great for the fans, great for everyone."