Why Hungary weekend is make or break for Alonso
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Athletic.
The race is on, and the question of Fernando Alonso's F1 future looms large heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, where Aston Martin will introduce the first phase of a massive upgrade package. But does his future depend on it making a leap forward? And up at the front, could Mercedes be under pressure at the Hungaroring? I'm Ed Straw, and joining me to answer those questions and more are Josh Sutil and special guest Alex Kalinorkas. Alex, welcome. It's been a long time since we've done a podcast together, many years, but in another life, we both cropped up on podcasts at Autosport, so it's nice to have this reunion.
Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Ed. Yeah, long-time listener, first-time guest, very, very honoured to be here. But I just thought the listeners should know that actually the reason why I'm here, if anything, why I have my career, it's all Ed's fault, given that he actually hired me at Autosport. And on pretty much my first day, certainly my first week in that ridiculous office we used to go to in Richmond, we recorded a podcast about Formula 2. That was the championship you'd hired me to cover for the magazine back then.
Will Aston Martin’s Hungary upgrade determine Fernando Alonso’s F1 future?
Charles Leclerc, his season in 2017. If anybody's watching, I've got a little picture of him there that he signed up there when he was racing for Prema. So, yeah, it all started and began with podcasts and you, Ed. So, yeah, very happy to be here. And, yeah, let's have a good chat about Fernando Alonso. I'm even wearing the right colour for that. I've got a green T-shirt on for anybody. listening audio only excellent i don't want us to dwell too much on my mistakes of the past in terms of hiring decisions so uh move on from that but of course you work for the athletic uh now you're in spa at the weekend so what do you actually do at the athletic well i'm one of the two f1 editors basically we have a four-person team we've got our excellent writers luke smith and madeline coleman and there's myself and patrick iverson he's based over in dallas so madeline obviously is uh is based in america as well luke is in
the uk with me and um and yeah the four of us somehow between us cover all 10 well 11 these days teams of formula one 22 drivers and um and yeah we just we just sort of get our teeth into the big stories hit the big moments yeah it's um it's it's a wonderful place to work and and yeah we see a growing audience in terms of our formula one readers so yeah that's that's that's pretty much it for me it's less about the writing these days which i'm sure uh i'm sure some people will no doubt be appreciative of but uh but yeah yeah very happy
Yeah, and delighted to finally have you on. We've tried to do it a few times in the past, but sometimes something crops up or times don't align.
Something very minor along the lines of Adrian Newey becoming Aston Martin, Team Prince Paul. I think that's scuppered my first appearance here.
But, you know, minor stuff. Exactly, exactly. And Josh... Good to have you on as well. We haven't got such a spectacular intro because we last had you on probably about a week or so ago. But you weren't in Spa, you were in Austria. You are going to be in Hungary. So you've been flitting between track-based and office-based.
Yeah, and the link continues because when I had my training at Autosport, Alex was held up as one of the most respected journalists to follow and follow in the footsteps. So I think, yeah, that's always been a goal of mine is to reach the lofty heights of what Alex has been doing.
Well, we've all sort of blamed each other for where we've ended up, which is a good strong start.
It's a horrible spiral, isn't it, really? I mean, yeah, in five years, we'll have someone else on the pod that they've had the displeasure of me helping them.
Someday we'll do a podcast that's everybody's origin story. How did we all turn out this way? And there'll be one unifying theme somewhere in the dim and distant past, doubtless. But that's one for another day. Today we have got...
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:16
2
Will Aston Martin’s Hungary upgrade determine Fernando Alonso’s F1 future?
1:16–23:33
3
How much does Alonso’s decision depend on car feel versus rule changes?
23:33–29:52
4
What performance gap must the Hungary upgrade close to satisfy Alonso?
29:52–43:40
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Race F1 Podcast
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