Alonso is close to Michael Schumacher’s record! He made F1 history with his performance in the Bahrain GP

Fernando Alonso finished third in the opening race of the new F1 season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, and thus took the podium. The Spanish double world champion’s 99th podium finish puts him on a list that includes Michael Schumacher.

It was indeed a great race weekend for Alonso. He set the second fastest time in the first free practice session and even won the remaining two practice sessions.

In Saturday’s qualifying, which determined the grid for Sunday’s race, he finished fifth with a time of 1:31.158, with both Red Bull and Ferrari cars ahead of him.

And although the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix itself was not ideal, especially after he was nearly shot down by teammate Lance Stroll, Alonso managed to take down both the Mercedes and Carlos Sainz-powered Ferrari monoblocs thanks to a great performance from the Aston Martin.

The first race of the 2023 season was pretty much dominated by both Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen taking the top step of the podium, with Sergio Pérez finishing second. Spaniard Alonso also finished third, thanks to the retirement of Charles Leclerc, to record his 99th career podium.

One of the oldest drivers on the podium

The well-known Racing News 365 website came up with the news in the last few hours that Alonso has become one of the oldest drivers in F1 history to reach the podium.

The last driver on that list was Michael Schumacher, who at 43 years, 5 months and 12 days, finished third in the 2012 European Grand Prix, which incidentally was won by Alonso.

The forty-one year old Spaniard is nineteenth on the aforementioned list, having climbed the podium at the age of 41 years, 7 months and 5 days.

The oldest rider on the list is Luigi Fagioli at the age of 53 years and 22 days, who won the French Grand Prix in 1951. Given the modernity of racing today, this record is probably not going to be beaten any more.

But the fact remains that if Alonso keeps his two-year contract with Aston Martin, he could move even higher in this ranking. The full ranking of the “oldest” 20 has been published by the aforementioned Racing News 365 website.

F1, Racing News 365