Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Imola, 2021

Alonso postponed his autobiography to tell “my own truth” after F1 career

2021 F1 season

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Fernando Alonso says he postponed publication of his autobiography until after he retires from Formula 1 in order to tell the truth about his time in the sport.

The two-times world champion’s autobiography, provisionally titled Racer, was originally due for publication by Pan Macmillan in November 2020, before being put on hold. It is expected to shed new light on controversial periods of Alonso’s career, including his acrimonious first spell at McLaren in 2007 and his victory for Renault in Singapore the following year after his team mate deliberately crashed.

Alonso left F1 at the end of 2018, but later agreed a return with Alpine this year. In the meantime he had competed in endurance racing, the Dakar Rally and Indianapolis 500.

Speaking in a social media post for his team, Alonso explained why his autobiography had been delayed.

“I’ve been working in a book for a couple of years already,” he said. “I planned originally to send it out in 2018 when I left F1 and then we postponed it, this book, for some time now.

“I realised that I kept racing in different categories, I’m now back in Formula 1, so I will do it when I stop and I can tell my own experiences and my own truth of things. Because if the book comes out while I’m racing and maybe it’s a little bit strange.

“So I prefer to finish and then tell my experience in life in motor racing.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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14 comments on “Alonso postponed his autobiography to tell “my own truth” after F1 career”

  1. I think Alonso should wait until he’s completely done with all forms of motorsport before publishing it…

  2. Will be an interesting read. When Schumacher retired in 2006 I always looked forward to reading his autobiography one day. There’s nothing like reading a story direct from their perspective. Sadly it looks like we’ll never get that chance.

    Can’t wait to read Alonso’s side of the fights with Schumi, early titles, drama with Hamilton, Spygate, Crashgate, initial success with Ferrari, fallings out with Ferrari, return to McLaren, falling out with Honda, Indycar, Le Mans, Dakar, return to F1… and who knows what else.

    There’s enough to fill the pages!

    1. Did schumacher ever want to write one? I’d have been interested as well, especially about his take on some specific episodes, I guess that since he wasn’t sure on never coming back there weren’t many years before 2010 and then ofc there was only a year before the sky crash there wasn’t much time even if he wanted.

  3. The only tripple crown he will achieve will be his trilogy book about his life?

    1. I think a 2 part movie (3-3.5 hours in total) would do better justice to his career while being sufficiently fast paced and gripping.

  4. He is postponing it because as we all know he threw McLaren under the bus after he got matched by Hamilton in his rookie year.

    He was also totally in on crashgate & if he admits it now the FIA will start an investigation & he could loose his drive.

    Not hard to imagine why he has put spilling the beans on ice until he’s done with F1

    1. not to mention waiting to line up his legal team for the slander (libel?) lawsuits when Flavio and Ron go after him!

    2. Pretty much what I thought of. Also the recount of his experiences with McLaren Honda will be searing

  5. I do hate the term “my truth”, surely there is “the truth” and “my point of view”. However I am willing to let Alonso off here as English isn’t his first language and this term is bandied about a lot.

    Understand why he delayed, although if F1 were looking for eyeballs on screen (as opposed to fair competition between drivers with mutual respect) they should have paid the publisher to publish it anyway to drum up controversy!!

    1. @chimaera2003 to paraphrase Lionel Hutz, there’s the truth and THE TRUTH!

  6. Lets see what level of self reflection he is capable off then.

    1. I think he’s perfectly capable of turning self reflection off :)

  7. my own truth?

    Piquet and Singapore?

    Not sure we’ll get the full Mclaren story either.

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