1996 Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill has joked that he’d hire Fernando Alonso as his lawyer after the Spaniard showed his clear focus after the second restart at Melbourne left only 12 cars able to finish.
Alonso’s quick thinking after being spun into the gravel by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz saw him quickly get on the radio to fight for the stewards to revert to the previous starting order, defending his third consecutive podium finish.
Managing to regain control of the car and ensure it safely returned to the pitlane guaranteed that Alonso could see out the race in P3, continuing a string of strong performances for Aston Martin.
Hill praised Alonso’s mindset amid the third red flag, claiming “he should be a lawyer.”
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“I’d get him to defend me in a murder charge,” he joked on the F1 Nation podcast.
“It’s boring driving the car, he needs something else to do.
“He’s going around going, ‘Can I do the strategy as well? Give me more information.’
“He already understands the rules. You’d expect someone who’s been in Formula 1 as long as he has and had all the experiences to have learned something, but you can’t automatically assume that,” he added.
Hill compared Alonso’s mindset to that of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who used his knowledge of the game to secure success, as much as his skill on track.
“He’s invested in this, he understands it, and he knows, like Michael Schumacher as well,” Hill added.
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“Michael Schumacher understood where the openings were, where the opportunities were, and he took advantage of those, and it’s the same with Fernando.
“He’s got to become a team boss eventually, because he’d be brilliant. He just understands this game,” he continued.
Alonso’s impressive comeback has seen him rise to P3 in the Drivers’ Standings, as Aston Martin sits in P2 in the Constructors’ race.