Fernando Alonso may be creeping towards his 41st birthday, but there is little doubt his desire to race remains as strong as ever.
The Spaniard has had a rather bizarre year so far. The first half of his season has been heavily disrupted by a swathe of reliability issues that have hampered his chances of scoring big points at times, but the pace has been there from both driver and car.
Alonso himself admitted that it has been "a very strange season" but still feels "proud" of the job he did in the first 11 races. He said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix : "I feel probably at my highest level driving-wise, thanks to the experience as well."
His return of 29 points so far will disappoint the competitive veteran, especially considering Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon has managed almost double that total. But it seems he is in an optimistic mood as he gears up for his team's home race.
Alonso comes into the French Grand Prix with hope that he can end his run of bad luck and start earning the results he feels his performances and the car's pace deserve. "It’s always fun to race in front of the French fans," said F1's oldest racer as he previewed this weekend's action.
"Half of the team is based in France and so it's good to have a home race for us at Circuit Paul Ricard. It's a fun track and whilst I've raced at various French race circuits, I've only competed here twice before in Formula 1.
"It's a challenging circuit to get the car setup right, with quite a few high-speed sections followed by various low and medium speed corners. We seemed quite competitive at various circuits this year, so hopefully we can keep this up at Paul Ricard.
"I feel I am physically driving better than ever! Luck has been our biggest issue. It has often escaped us at crucial moments this season. If we can turn this around and get the luck that we deserve as a team, then I'm confident we can score big points and start to climb both drivers' and constructors' standings."
Alonso sits 10th in the championship, two places behind Ocon at the half-way point. Double-figure hauls in the last three races have seen Alpine jump up to 81 points in the constructors', moving level with McLaren in their battle for fourth place and the unofficial title of 'best of the rest' behind the three top teams.
