Fernando Alonso: How I went from Formula 1 pilot to fashion businessman
The pilot Fernando Alonso (Oviedo, 1981) lives a moment with many objectives fulfilled: he has won two world championships of Formula 1 and, in recent years, he has given a chickpea for other disciplines of motor racing, showing ambition and versatility.He has other plans underway, such as the Kimoa clothing mark or his museum and circuit in Asturias, the homeland where he nests the true me of him.Before retiring he will win his third World Cup.
40 years.It is the age in which the common of mortals feel bad existential roll.Life seems to reach its midpoint, we become aware of our own finitude, we review what we have achieved so far, we are not always satisfied."Well, for me it is an age like any other, the truth," says Fernando Alonso.
The pilot turned 40 in July and the passage of time seems not to give him vertigo: it will be because he has achieved a good part of what he wanted.When he was young, he says, he imagined a more peaceful life, forming a family and all that, but the engine of his life, which is the engine sports discipline, has guided him on unusual roads: «Life, in the end, in the end,It takes you where he wants, "says the Asturian," and I have always lived at full speed. "
By the window you can see the sport port, full of white boats, the peaceful morning of Montecarlo, yes, something cloudy;Also a horrendous housing block that clashes with the rest of the landscape.Alonso lives in Monaco, and arrives at his appointment to room 1123 of the Novotel Monte-Carlo Hotel (in which he stayed when he came to compete) with a good taste: days before, the previous Sunday, he got a persecuted podium inQatar's Grand Prix.A third world championship is his current objective, at whatever it costs.His ambition for the near future has been described as the plan, thus with capital letters, as if it were a dark conspiracy.Some media have called this phase of his career as his "second youth", but Carbayón seems to have not noticed that the first one is over.
"There are only 20 people in the world who conduct a formula 1, that is already a privilege, and very few can become a champion."Alonso has two F1 world championships, the FIA resistance World Cup, 24 hours a day, 24 hours of Daytona ... but everything is ephemeral: generations pass, new faces arrive that attract attention and relegate the oldto the background.The Asturian is concerned about his legacy: «I want to leave something else, not to be any pilot who has passed through here.I want them to remember the passion, the love for sport, never surrender, work with the young pilots, which my name means something for those who come, ”he says.He is extremely competitive, competes for everything, he hate losing, to anything.
One of the facets that make Alonso a private pilot is his brand of Kimoa clothing (founded in 2017 with his partner Alberto Fernández Albilares), a word that means something like "sitting and seeing the sunset together" in Hawaiian language.They are casual and sports garments, with surf airs and motor racing, urban touches, which the Asturian does not stop dressing on podiums and public appearances.He is the best ambassador of his brand, with his everlasting Kimoa cap, which is almost as characteristic as his powerful jaw or the greas that appear by the neck.
"I have always liked to do new things," says Alonso, "I have traveled a lot in the world, I have seen many lifestyles, many ways of dressing, and I am clear what I like."He wants the brand to also be a part of his legacy, especially in the field of sustainability, because they are garments that are manufactured trying to preserve the environment."It is very fresh, very happy clothes, that can be put on both a teenager and lawyer who goes suit all week," says the entrepreneur.
How is such a brand built?"We learned on the march, as a test and error, I had no design idea, and maybe or taste," he explains, "it is a deeply competitive sector, there are many brands, many startups, many ideas everywhere."The pilot's visibility helped greatly give the project, to open some doors.Find suppliers, shuffle designs, take steps forward, but also steps back, ultimately, mount the business, it was an adventure."Some of the designs we proposed were not possible within sustainability, because there were no textures or colors," recalls the pilot.But they adapt."The most beautiful thing was precisely seeing how the seven or eight people who started with Kimoa were doing everything, adapting to what was possible and falling in love with the project."
Today, innovation in the company is fundamental and that is done through the Kimoa Lab, its creative laboratory in which there is a determined investment in R&D, which has already developed technical sunglasses to perform any sport orMailts and jackets for cycling in technical and sustainable materials.Recently, a new majority investor has entered, the American Revolution Brands, who has acquired 70% of the brand, with the idea of gaining international relevance, growing in the United States, increasing the presence in physical stores (soon they will open one in Manhattan)or start electrification -related projects, such as scooters or electric bicycles, also sustainable.
Speaking of electrification, what do you think of innovations in commercial, electric and probably autonomous cars?"The technology is unstoppable," says the pilot, "all brands have bet strongly and the electric car will be predominant before or after."In the races, the pilot supposes, they will continue for a little longer the noise, the fumes and the smell of gasoline, which are part of the charm, although surely at some point there will be an evolution in the environmental sense.And will there ever autonomous F1 races, without human pilots inside?"Well, I hope not, if so, we could not enjoy our passion what we are in this," he laughs.
There, it is still, circuit circuit, championship in championship, category in category.In recent years, he has left Formula 1 clues to experiment with other types of driving: the Dakar rally, resistance races, Indycar series, 500 miles from Indianapolis and even testing Nascar cars.A thing nothing habitual among the pilots and that has caused admiration for his versatility and ambition.At the beginning of the Amazon Prime Video series entitled Fernando, which is embedded in his life, a sequence of his jumps is seen by the Sahara in a rally car, in the Dakar 2020: it looks like an Indiana Jones movie.«It was a personal challenge, crossing the desert, 15 days with a person in the car [the co -pilot Marc Coma]… I come from the F1 where everything is measured to the millimeter and this was much more wild, we got lost twice a day, andWe had to wear the belt very well tied, ”he recalls fun.
Thirty -many years ago, being just a child, Alonso began piloting karts in his native Asturias, also in a wild way: the story of his beginnings is already almost legendary.The images of that time show very precarious town races, with guajes running at full speed, such as atomic ants, by clues delimited by straw bullets, races that would be unthinkable today, for their danger.Little Alonso began to win races so small that, literally, he doesn't remember.From there, little by little, up to the top.Although lately there is much talk about the role of fate in the achievement of success, Alonso's case is notorious for the brutal dedication of him from the earliest childhood.He was practically born with a steering wheel in his hands.
When he started breaking it, he charged huge fame in a very short time.In his town's verbena, he had to stay in the parking lot, taking cider in the gloom, so as not to be the only center of attention.Throughout Spain the figure of it was idolized, and the blue and yellow of Renault colors (and, curiously, of the Asturian flag).Alonsomania.For a 21 -year -old boy, age he was when he achieved his first championship, it's hard.With 24 he was world champion."Being so young, nobody teaches you how to manage that notoriety, you lock yourself in yourself, you limit your appearances, everyone wants a piece of you," he recalls.Over time, with maturity, his relationship with fame has improved.
Now he doesn't have much time to return to the Green Region.«Although returning is always magical, it is where I feel that I become myself again, with the usual people, the friends of a lifetime,” she explains.It is a very different routine from the one he has in his professional life, although on the edge of the Cantabrian he also lives with intensity: he has to see many people and do many things in a very short time."It's all very compressed, so leaves me a very big mark."
In Asturias is another of its parallel projects: the Fernando Alonso Museum and Circuit, in the town of Llanera, near Oviedo.A kart circuit where you try to create vocations in the little ones, just as that of the pilot himself.Around the circuit various activities, competitions, driving courses or road safety are held and, of course, there is the museum with more than 350 pieces from its personal collection (from its first Kart to some of the cars that you have piloted) andan area of 1,200 square meters.More than 25,000 nine -year -old children have passed in the last four years for their road safety courses.
Recently, Alonso has moved from Lugano, in Switzerland, where he lived in recent years, Monaco."A reason is my love to the sea: I miss it a lot, in Switzerland there was a lake, but it was not the same."This city is part of the pilot's sentimental memory, in addition to being the most legendary circuit of F1.Almost all pilots live in Monaco, so that they all travel on the same plane to the championships, from the Nice airport, as children who go to school.Sometimes, they are left to take something ("there are indecent invitations to party," jokes Alonso, "but for now I have not joined any of them"), or to ride a bike.
Precisely the bike recently put the pilot.Despite the risk that he runs when driving some of the fastest machines on the planet, he had a spectacular accident by pedaling on two wheels.«The bicycle and cars are not good companions: I had a mishap and broke my jaw, they operated and put me some titanium plates.In January they withdraw them ».He stayed in a scare, a reminder that any day can happen.Do you feel that caution when pilota?"The truth is not: when I wear the helmet there is a reset in my head, fear, respect, concern, any physical or personal problem disappear when I am competing," he explains.Outside the car is cautious: an example in the pandemic, whose restrictions and recommendations followed Rajataba.The test was done all the time, it always gave negative."Outside the circuit it scares me everything."
In Monaco, the days between championship and championship spend: "My time between one and the other is reduced to waiting, to think of cars."The pilot tells it relaxed on the hotel couch, cut in the clouds.There is a cheese lid, but he refrains: then he has stayed to eat."In my life there are no two days," he explains.Of course, in the moments of holiday he likes to make normal life, because he presumes to be, despite everything, a normal person.To the treatment, close and simple, he seems.He sees movies and series, makes the purchase in supermarket, "but always with his head in another place," he says.
How long can a pilot drive?There is no defined age.After all, the engine, even if one who pilots is a team sport and in the race of a corridor many factors tell: the car, the equipment, and so on.Michael Schumacher, for example, returned to Formula 1 at 41 years after the first withdrawal from him, and ran until 43. In other disciplines, such as the Rally, Carlos Sainz won his last Dakar with 57 years."I always want to keep the window open to do what I like, regardless of my age," says Alonso, "more than physical resistance, I think the wear has more to do with total concentration, absolute dedication throughoutof all year ».Perhaps, adventure, the moment arrives within three or four years."Someday I will leave Formula 1," he concludes, "but never the engine."
