Fernando Alonso has said his failure to win a World Championship with Ferrari is the first thing he would change about his F1 career. After having won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, Alonso moved to Ferrari in 2010 with high hopes of notching a third World Championship. But though he came agonisingly close in 2010 and 2012, missing out at the final race in both seasons, Alonso would never win a title with the Scuderia, and left the team in 2014 after becoming disillusioned with Ferrari's failure to provide him with a competitive car. Alonso has now gone ten years without winning a Grand Prix, and speaking to the High Performance podcast, the Spaniard acknowledged that his Ferrari stint is still a sore point. "Winning a championship with Ferrari would probably be the first thing that I'd [change], if I could go back in time," said Alonso. "In 2010 and 2012, we were within a few laps of winning a Championship, and that probably could have changed the outcome of many things, and the history behind a few things, and I was disappointed for sure to miss those."
Alonso wishes he'd 'lived a little more'
Aside from his failure to win a title with Ferrari, Alonso also noted his regret at not enjoying the successes of his earlier career, acknowledging that, at 42 years old, his time in F1 is drawing to a close. "What I regret for sure was not enjoying [myself] more. My time, my career, I know that I'm at the end of it, and a new life, in few years' time, for me [will be] without driving. "When I look back on my career, I will see a lot of good things and good friendships and incredible experiences, but I should have enjoyed [them] more. "If I had the opportunity to live my exact life once more, maybe I wouldn't change anything on my team, my choices or the Ferrari title or whatever, I would just live all those moments a little more and try to have more memories. "I won the championship in Brazil in 2005 and 2006, and I hardly remember anything from those afternoons and nights, which is sad. So these are the kinds of things that I would change."
Future plans for Dakar?
Having not won a Grand Prix for ten years, and with Red Bull currently the dominant force in F1, Alonso appears to have accepted that he will not add to his two World Championships, but said he was enjoying the challenge of driving his Aston Martin team up the order. "I would love to win the championship once again, but it's not the highest priority," said Alonso. "I'm enjoying the process, especially now with Aston Martin, to become a contender for the future. I'm loving time with the team, how we are all growing up in many different areas." Having won titles in F1 and the World Endurance Championship, Alonso added that he would also love to win the Dakar Rally, an event he competed in for the first and only time in 2020. "I will 99% try Dakar again. It’s not that the third world title is less of a priority, but winning Dakar one day is a high priority for me as well," said Alonso. "I will maybe have to attempt that race eight, ten years or whatever, until maybe one day I get lucky and I can fight for the win. "But if I win in Formula 1, in endurance racing and in Dakar, that will be something special as a driver and as a person, so those kinds of challenges are in my head at the moment."
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