Fernando Alonso will not be racing in Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix with a rabbit’s foot and clutching rosary beads having searched the green areas of Monte Carlo for a four-leaved clover, as he clarified his “unluckiest driver in the world” comments during the Imola race.
Still without a point in 2025, the two-time F1 world champion qualified fifth for Aston Martin in Italy, giving him the best chance of breaking his duck for the season.
However, after he pitted early, Alonso’s race was ruined when a virtual safety car period meant rivals were able to save time in coming in for fresh tyres.
To complete the series of unfortunate events, a full safety car later in the race allowed other teams to pit once again, while Alonso and Aston team-mate Lance Stroll did not have the tyre options to do so.
Alonso lamented the misfortune as he said of the team radio that he was the “unluckiest driver in the world,” including a censored swear word for good measure.
Asked ahead of the Monaco GP if he could change his luck with a mascot or a prayer, the 43-year-old pointed to Aston’s lack of pace as the leading cause for his hardships.
“I don't believe in all those things,” he said. “So it's what we deserve, probably. We've been unlucky many moments, I think this year we've been uncompetitive – which is the unluckiest part of everything.
“When you are more competitive, any strategy works, any safety car is a small problem, but it's not the end of the day – but when you are not competitive, anything that is not in your way it takes you out of the points.
“But in seven races that we had the possibility to score points, many things happened. We went off in the gravel – my mistake – in Australia; then in China, with three disqualified cars, we could score points, but we had fire on the brakes already in lap two, and we had to retire the car; and we've been uncompetitive for many races.”
Alonso was seemingly frustrated that his radio exchange had been made public, but pointed to his previous successes as proof that maybe he is not as unlucky a driver as he had claimed in the heat of the moment.
“These kinds of things are always frustrating in the car, but as I said, this is a very private conversation with my engineer and my team; we do the debriefs, we say how uncompetitive we are, we say how competitive we certainly are in Imola, and we could score points, we spend the whole Sunday on the strategy, looking for these first points,” he said.
“You send a message specifically to them, and a very private conversation. When you don't know the context of everything, and you just put the radio, it makes no sense, but this is the normal rule for Formula 1.
“But I don't consider myself unlucky. I mean, two times world champion, two times Le Mans winner, WEC champion, 24-hour Daytona champion – so if I'm unlucky, I cannot imagine the other 18 drivers here.”
