Fernando Alonso: The Real Pain of Losing

About this episode

We revisit our conversation with Fernando Alonso - two-time Formula 1 World Champion, 437 Grand Prix starts, 32 wins - recorded in a rare moment where the visor comes off completely. Jake and Damian get behind the "robot" Alonso becomes the second his helmet goes on, and into the boy who started racing a homemade go-kart at three years old, in a family with no money, no expectations, and no competitive gene to explain where his came from. Fernando is disarmingly honest about the cost of that competitiveness: the two championships with Ferrari he came agonisingly close to and still can't fully explain losing; the two titles he did win, in 2005 and 2006, that he now barely remembers because he was already thinking about the next race before the champagne had dried; and the moment, at 13 years old, a mechanic pulled him aside after his best result yet and told him, "second is the first loser." It's a line that shaped the next three decades of his career. Moments that will stay with you: • Why his own parents still can't explain where his will to win came from • The 20% of every race weekend spent planning not for victory, but for everything that could go wrong • What changed whe