06-10-2014, 00:00
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29487931
In some ways, the numbers mean nothing. The consistent excellence of Alonso's performances over the years - his speed, his repeatedly breathtaking overtaking moves, his sheer, bloody-minded relentlessness, his forcing of uncompetitive cars into places they don't belong - has long since rendered irrelevant the statistical disparities between his career and, say, Vettel's.
But in other ways, especially to Alonso himself, the statistics mean a lot.
It is the fact that his hero Ayrton Senna won three championships that makes the number so important to him, so it is fitting that it is to the team with which Senna achieved his greatest success that Alonso now turns to achieve his own aim.
He admitted in a BBC Sport interview earlier this year that to end his career without winning another title would be "sad".
In some ways, the numbers mean nothing. The consistent excellence of Alonso's performances over the years - his speed, his repeatedly breathtaking overtaking moves, his sheer, bloody-minded relentlessness, his forcing of uncompetitive cars into places they don't belong - has long since rendered irrelevant the statistical disparities between his career and, say, Vettel's.
But in other ways, especially to Alonso himself, the statistics mean a lot.
It is the fact that his hero Ayrton Senna won three championships that makes the number so important to him, so it is fitting that it is to the team with which Senna achieved his greatest success that Alonso now turns to achieve his own aim.
He admitted in a BBC Sport interview earlier this year that to end his career without winning another title would be "sad".
Fernando es de otro planeta