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Fernando Alonso's jibe-laden weekend in Australia had many victims. It started with Lewis Hamilton being termed "too old with a short memory".
The Spaniard then hinted that Sebastian Vettel might not have been able to produce the same results in Aston Martin that he achieved.
He eventually targeted Mercedes, claiming that the team over-exaggerated the problems with the car.
While Alonso's comments had mixed reviews, one couldn't help but feel that the demeanor of the Spaniard was a breath of fresh air.
Drivers are just too 'PR-trained'
In an ecosystem that is so heavily commercialized and drivers are walking billboards, everything is curated. What a driver is supposed to say, what he's not to, how he will answer a question, and even what tone will be used.
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These days, drivers are under so much pressure to say the right things that the originality goes out of the window. Every word is measured, every word is carefully used and every word is under the microscope as well.
This is arguably one of the reasons why Netflix's 'Drive to Survive' has become such a hit. It catches drivers' comments when they're not giving their PR scripted monologs to the media and showing their real side.
A real side that is far more interesting than the mundane statements we see far too often in front of the media.
Respect is good, honesty is better
Let's just get one thing out of the way. Not all F1 drivers are friendly with each other and not all of them like each other. Most importantly, not all of them get along with each other either.
Yet when the media questions one driver about the other, it's always respectful and how good the other driver is. While it's nice to always see cordial relations between the drivers, it's safe to say that the whole thing is a facade more than anything else.
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are not the best of friends. Sebastian Vettel was in a similar equation when he was competitive and fighting for the title against these two.
These days, however, everything has become far too Vanilla, everyone is friendly and it's almost as if the sport has entered a utopic world of sorts where everyone respects everyone.
The reality is far from it and sometimes it pilfers its way through the cracks. For instance, Lando Norris calling out Mercedes and George Russell last season for over-exaggerating Mercedes struggles was refreshing because the McLaren driver was not wrong in doing that.
It's very rare for drivers to speak their minds these days and somehow that's where the sport has lost out. The reason why the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya, Niki Lauda, and James Hunt developed such a following was because of the lack of PR involved.
Respecting your competitors is a good thing, but honesty is arguably a far more attractive proposition and in all fairness, it comes in limited supply on the F1 grid.
More rivalries = More riveting storyline
What was the one thing that made the Lewis Hamilton-Fernando Alonso battle in Australia more interesting? It was the Spaniard's comments before the race weekend.
Fernando Alonso called Hamilton "too old" and said that he had a "short memory". When the two drivers were on track it was obvious that there was some needle between the two and even if it wasn't, F1 fans were engaged.
It was the same thing that made the 2021 F1 championship riveting. Not only were Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen performing at a very high level, but the two also hated each other and it was obvious in their body language when they were around each other.
At the end of the day, it is this authenticity that makes for great viewing as it does give way to some very interesting rivalries.
At 41, Fernando Alonso just doesn't care
Finally, the most important part of all of this is the fact that Fernando Alonso is now the old man of the F1 paddock. He might be fit as a fiddle and is still an elite performer, but the days of him being PR/sponsor friendly are in the rearview mirror.
This version of Fernando Alonso has caught the ire of many as well as quite a few who felt that his comments against Lewis Hamilton were in bad taste. Well, let's hope the people that think this way are in the minority.
A free-minded Fernando Alonso who speaks his mind is one of the more refreshing personas in the sport right now. It's always nice to have a driver that speaks his mind without worrying about how his views will be perceived.
Most importantly, what made Fernando Alonso's jibes at Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, or Sebastian Vettel this impactful was the fact that they were arguably right.
Hamilton's claim that Red Bull was the fastest car he had ever seen did not make sense. Mercedes exaggerating the crisis it faced at the start of the season certainly has credence and finally, there might be a certain truth in Alonso claiming that he would do a better job at Aston Martin than Vettel.
In a sport where drivers have been forced to double-check every word they say and err on the side of caution, Fernando Alonso speaking his mind without a care in the world is a breath of fresh air.
