5 Questions F1 Fans Would Love to Ask Fernando Alonso

So what would you ask Fernando Alonso?

There would certainly be no shortage of questions to put to a two-time world champion, a driver who, for the best part of a decade, has been regarded as the most complete performer on the Formula One grid.

Since making his debut for Minardi in 2001, the Spaniard has seen it all.

He's experienced how lonely life can be at the back of the grid, he's played an instrumental role in transforming podium contenders into pace-setters and he's well-accustomed to the pressures of representing the two biggest teams in the business in McLaren and Ferrari.

As well as his on-track exploits—he has 32 grand prix victories to his name—Alonso has been involved (in one way or another) in three of the most controversial sagas to plague F1, including "Spygate," "Crashgate" and the team orders scandal of 2010, never mind the feuds with team-mates and team bosses alike.

You'd have to search long and hard to find a more complex, compelling individual in the paddock.

Here are five questions F1 fans would ask if they found themselves head-to-head with Alonso, a situation only few people emerge from with any credibility.

Alonso was an angry man at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix.

Without a win since June and nursing an ever-decreasing points lead over Michael Schumacher, the Spaniard was in desperate need of a strong result at Monza, Ferrari's home circuit.

His weekend, however, was ruined on Saturday when the Renault driver was handed a five-place grid penalty for obstructing Schumacher's team-mate, Felipe Massa, in qualifying in what was one of the most outrageous stewards' decisions ever.

As FIA race director Charlie Whiting told F1 Racing magazine (h/t Autosport), Alonso erupted, worrying over how he would break the bad news to his grandmother, throwing his sunglasses across the room and shouting in an extraordinary release of emotion.

That was followed by an infamous press conference, above, in which Alonso explained the incident with Massa from his point of view and how he no longer regarded F1 as a sport.

It was damaging enough to hear anyone within the paddock question F1's integrity, never mind the reigning world champion, someone just weeks away from becoming the youngest-ever two-time title winner.

But both Alonso and F1 have changed much since then. 

Fernando, now one of the most experienced drivers on the grid, is more mature, wiser and incredibly familiar with the political side of the sport, while F1 is almost unrecognisable having embraced a sole tyre supplier and hybrid technology among other things.

It would be interesting, therefore, to know whether the changes over the last nine years have made Alonso feel like a leading athlete in a major sport once again, or whether F1 is still a game of business, politics and ego.

Although questions over the future of F1 are normally reserved for team bosses, it's always intriguing to hear the thoughts of senior drivers on the direction the sport is heading and what they would do to address its biggest issues.

Since claiming his most recent world championship in 2006, Alonso has taken the title race down to the final race of the season three times, losing on every occasion.

In '07, the Spaniard arrived at the Brazilian Grand Prix just four points adrift of McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton and was best-placed to take advantage of any misfortune suffered by the rookie.

Despite Hamilton's race being crippled by a temporary gearbox problem, Alonso could only manage third in the race, with outsider Kimi Raikkonen winning the grand prix and with it the championship at Interlagos as both McLaren drivers finished just one point short of the title.

Three years later, Alonso went into the Abu Dhabi GP as the leader of a four-horse championship race, but Ferrari's strategy mistake—covering Mark Webber, rather than Sebastian Vettel, at the pit stops—allowed the German to steal the title from under his nose.

And, of course, at Brazil 2012, Alonso's eyes would have lit up when he learned of Vettel's spin on the first lap, but the Red Bull driver's fightback through the field meant Fernando, who led the standings by 40 points at the mid-season stage, was denied. Again.

If those afternoons had played out differently—if Kimi also had gearbox gremlins, if the prat perch had not underestimated the threat of Vettel, if Seb's damage had proven terminal—Alonso would now be a five-time world champion and his place among the all-time greats of F1 would be undisputed.

For all he has achieved, Alonso is the greatest underachiever of his generation, yet his ability to bounce back from all these near misses is a case study in sports psychology.

So how did he recover from these disappointments? How long—or rather, how soon—did it take him to recover? And what is it that, in an era of one-shot wonders such as Felipe Massa, Webber and Nico Rosberg, allows Alonso to come back fighting again and again?

Alonso has never hidden his desire to win at least a trio of titles, telling BBC Sport's Andrew Benson last year: "It is not that I'm not happy with two but the third puts you in a list of very important names."

Among the names the Spaniard would join on three championships, if he were to secure another, is Ayrton Senna, his boyhood inspiration. 

The Brazilian's legacy at McLaren-Honda almost certainly played a role in Alonso's decision to join the team for 2015—the opportunity to become the modern-day Senna was surely too good to turn down—but this season is already a write-off as far as his title prospects are concerned.

And it is unclear when his next shot at the championship will arise.

As terrible as his luck has been since 2006, Alonso has developed a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, fleeing McLaren at the end of '07, 12 months before the team won the title with Lewis Hamilton, and departing Ferrari at the end of 2014, just as the Prancing Horse turned their fortunes around.

True, Fernando has been his own worst enemy at times, yet it feels as though F1 is conspiring to leave him stranded on two championships.

And he may face the biggest race of all, that against time, to join the elite.

With his 34th birthday fast approaching, there will come a point—probably within the next three years—where his powers will begin to fade, his reflexes dwindle and his overall levels of performance and motivation decline.

It happens to the best of 'em, and it would be fascinating to know if Alonso, without a grand prix win in two years, is still utterly adamant that his time will come again or whether he fears the worst—that all his chances to seal title No. 3 may have already passed him by.

The fallout of Alonso's accident in the second pre-season test in February was one of the most bizarre sagas of modern times.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash at Turn 3 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya—a strange place to have a shunt in any case—McLaren claimed Alonso was "uninjured" and would "remain in hospital overnight."

One night, however, suddenly became three, and it transpired that Alonso, as per ESPN, had in fact suffered concussion, which not only forced him to miss the final test but the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, keeping him out of action for more than a month.

Although McLaren had previously stated "there is no evidence that indicates that Fernando’s car suffered mechanical failure of any kind" and that their "findings" implied the crash was caused by "unpredictably gusty winds," Alonso seemed to have a different view as he made his comeback at the Malaysian GP.

After swanning into the paddock at the Sepang International Circuit, Alonso was the centre of attention at the FIA press conference where, as per the official F1 website, he claimed "a steering problem" led to the wheel being "locked into the right" and how "even a hurricane" would not have blown his car off the track.

Alonso's comments seemed to entirely contradict those of his team, so why did he so blatantly oppose McLaren's public stance and release an incident that was supposed to be behind him back into the public consciousness?

Was he irked by the team's clumsy handling of the situation as he spent a month in the shadows, intending to embarrass McLaren in public? Or was he, upon his return to the paddock, simply in the mood for mischief?

And besides, what even happened during the crash? Can he even remember what happened?

F1 seems to have moved on from it, but there remain plenty of unanswered questions surrounding the crash. It would be in the sport's interests if Alonso were to shed more light on exactly what happened before, during and after the shunt.

Alonso's last stint at McLaren was marred by a breakdown in relations with team principal Ron Dennis, which resulted in the Spaniard leaving the team after just one season in 2007.

Central to the tension between the pair was Alonso's anguish at being denied No. 1 status over Lewis Hamilton, which—according to BBC Sport's Andrew Benson—led to the Spaniard threatening to provide the FIA with emails over "Spygate."

This ultimately saw the team excluded from the '07 constructors' standings and hit with a record $100 million fine, as reported by BBC Sport at the time, with Dennis quoted by the same source as stating: "The relationship between Fernando and I is extremely cold—that is an understatement."

When rumours surrounding Alonso's potential return surfaced toward the end of 2013, the Spaniard was quoted by Benson as saying his problem was not with McLaren itself but "one man in the team that is not there [any more]."

Dennis' return to power at the beginning of 2014, though, seemed to signal the end of any hopes of an Alonso return.

The pair, however, were pictured cuddling when the two-time world champion's signing was confirmed last December, above, and have been seen chatting in the garage at races this season.

Yet for all their insistence that bygones are bygones, it remains hard to believe that there isn't a lingering degree of acrimony between Alonso and Dennis.

So, Fernando, just how is your relationship with Ron? Was that embrace in the McLaren Technology Centre merely for the cameras? 

Do you prefer to cosy-up to Eric Boullier, the affable racing director, in post-race debriefs? And do you honestly believe your second spell at McLaren will end without the reopening of those old wounds?

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