Fernando Alonso believes his second stint in Formula 1 can be the “opposite” of Michael Schumacher’s at Mercedes.
Following his near-decade of success at Ferrari before ‘retiring’ in 2006, the German’s comeback between 2010-2012 was underwhelming as he was largely outperformed by Nico Rosberg and scored just a single podium with an unofficial pole in Monaco.
In contrast, Alonso will be two years younger than Schumacher was a decade ago and does have experience of the current generation of cars, having only left the grid in 2018.
The Spaniard also thinks he will benefit from having left F1 when McLaren was fighting in the midfield for several years, in comparison to Michael who was still winning at Ferrari.
“Michael had very good cars during his career and when he came back his car was pretty average, so everybody was disappointed,” Alonso is quoted as telling L’Equipe.
“In my case, the opposite could happen. I had inferior cars in the last five years of my career and who knows what will happen now.”
As for how long Alonso will return for F1 for, he denied that will be for as long as it takes to finally score that elusive third world title.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think I will target certain results before I stop,” he told Sky Sports.
“But I think in motorsport, the time watch is what tells you when to stop, not the age.
“I hope the time watch is on my side in the coming years.”
Currently, the double world champion’s preparation for his comeback is continuing with a two-day test in Bahrain, which began with 93 laps on Wednesday.
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However, it has emerged Ferrari, McLaren and Racing Point have blocked any hope of Alonso driving in the young driver test in Abu Dhabi after the season finale.
“It was the usual stuff of trying to play any little game possible,” Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.
“We noticed a collaborative spirit, and we believed it was possible and then a team got in the way, not granting approval, so we won’t have Nando on the track.”
“But most teams are more pragmatic. We just need to hope the FIA will be. Renault does so much for young drivers.”