
Red Bull’s Paul Monaghan believes Fernando Alonso still has what it takes to dominate in Formula 1, if given the right tools.
Monaghan has been with Red Bull for the last 20 years but, prior to this, put in a stint at Benetton/Renault which saw him briefly serve as Alonso’s race engineer during the 2003 season.
Paul Monaghan: Fernando Alonso is still relentless
Alonso’s career trajectory has taken him through some of Formula 1’s biggest teams, albeit usually at a point in time when that team wasn’t performing at a world championship-winning level.
Now 43-years-old, Alonso is still seeking to add to the two world titles he won with Renault in 2005 and 2006, and is on a long-term contract with the Silverstone-based Aston Martin squad.
It’s more than 10 years since Alonso won a Grand Prix, although he took multiple podiums during a very competitive 2023 season as the AMR23 proved a potent machine in his hands.
Aston Martin has been going through a period of strengthening under Lawrence Stroll’s ownership, with multiple high-profile engineering signings to go alongside a complete refresh of the team’s facilities at its Silverstone campus.
With a brand-new wind tunnel coming online, and the likes of former Ferrari technical chief Enrico Cardile partnering up with former Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey, the stars appear to be aligned for Aston Martin to come good at some point – perhaps while Alonso is still racing.
If Aston Martin does manage to create a world championship-challenging machine, Monaghan believes Alonso will have no problems rising to the challenge of a title fight with younger guns like Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, or Lewis Hamilton.
“He is relentless enough. If you give him the chance of a win, he’s not going to screw up, don’t worry,” Monaghan told Spain’s DAZN.
“He was so calm when he was leading his first win in Hungary [2003], nothing bothered him.”
The British engineer, who has worked with the likes of Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen as well as Alonso and Verstappen, said that, with the right equipment, Alonso will still have the capability to win a title.
“I doubt he’ll suddenly get a dose of nerves and make a mistake,” he said.
“If you give him the chance of a win, he’ll get it, don’t worry.”
With Alonso seeking to break the record for the longest gap between titles, as he now enters his 19th year since his most recent, the likelihood is that, if a chance was to come along soon, he’d have to fight Verstappen – the current generational talent sweeping all before him.
Monaghan believes it would be a drama-filled championship fight, and that both drivers – known for their angry radio messages – would light up the airwaves.
“We are going to have to make a lot of cars because they are not going to be half a millimetre apart,” he said.
“I imagine they would be fast, fair, relentless? The radios would be pretty busy, there would be enough respect between the two.
“It would be a no-brainer. Honestly, if Fernando at this stage of his career can fight Max, hats off to him. It would be great to see.”
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Paul Monaghan: I feel some guilt he hasn’t won more titles
With Monaghan joining Red Bull after the 2005 season, becoming head of race engineering and, later, chief engineer with the Milton Keynes-based team.
During this near-two-decade tenure at Red Bull, Red Bull prevented Alonso and Ferrari from winning further titles in 2010 and ’12 as Sebastian Vettel held off the Spaniard in the championships.
With Monaghan playing his part in Alonso’s defeats, he admitted to feeling some guilt over how he has contributed to some of Alonso’s misery.
“He wants the best out of himself every day,” he said.
“He doesn’t have bad days, he doesn’t have a bad session. He’s a phenomenal competitor.
“His confidence is unshakeable and he is a wonderful person to be around. I enjoy his company enormously. He got close in 2010.
“He was nearly a Ferrari World Champion. I saw him on Sunday night of Abu Dhabi. It was a double-edged sword and Seb had won his first world title with Red Bull.
“I saw Fernando on Sunday night. I was pleased that I was in the team that won, and pleased for Seb.
“Yet I was sorry for Fernando as he sat there with his little entourage mopping up the mess.
“I just went over and said good year, well done, and shame you didn’t get it.
“I felt a little bit guilty. There were no hard feelings and, in 2012, he pushed us damn hard again. We clung on by our fingernails.
“It was nice to compete with him. You realise you need everything you’ve got to compete with him as he’s fairly phenomenal. Somehow, we prevailed.
“In many ways, I feel a little bit guilty about it. But, in other ways, I’m competing against him. It’s a privilege to compete with someone of that caliber, of that talent.”
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