The one who was in the most hurry to collect the belongings in Spa, as a pre-holiday ritual, was Max Verstappen, who crossed the finish line well in advance and caught the organizers with a different step. The traditional fireworks show was delayed excessively, although this detail went unnoticed at Red Bull, with everything ready for the party photo in front of their garage. And for the second consecutive race, after the embarrassing episode in Hungary, one of the trophies shattered on the ground.. When Helmut Marko was asked about a driver capable of overshadowing his leader, the Austrian pointed to Fernando Alonso: “Perhaps only he could, although even with the same car he would also have a difficult time”.

Those statements were enough to add gasoline to an unsubstantiated rumor that was already flying over the overcast sky of Spa. The umpteenth, over the last decade, that links Alonso with Red Bull. Obviously, not even the English journalists, who are legion every weekend, gave any credit to the author of the hoax. “He is a specialist in bullshit”, was heard by the press room of the Belgian circuit.

Much more reliable was the information from the Sky Germany reporter who had seen Otmar Szafnauer enter the Aston Martin hospitality. When he was finally able to approach Alonso's former boss, he escaped with a mysterious gesture: “As you can see, my adventure in Alpine has just ended and from now on I can sign for a new team. We'll see…”. At that moment, obviously, the journalist stressed that they had surprised her hanging around Lawrence Stroll's domain. “I will not comment,” Szafnauer finished, almost smacking his lips.

rear wing

The Romanian-American executive, no longer wearing the distinctive blue of the French team, caught many eyes at the end of Sunday. After getting fed up with saying that Alpine had not given him those 100 races he needed, he slipped that his new position will be “important” and that, this time, they will allow him to change what he deems appropriate.. Alan Permane, who was also saying goodbye after 34 seasons at Enstone, fortunately went much more unnoticed.

After the traumatic break with Alpine, which is now one year old, no one in the paddock sees Alonso sharing a garage with Szafnauer again. Not even in a role subordinate to Mike Krack, the current main team, who in four months has earned a reputation as a solid man, capable of assuming his mistakes. Like the confusion unleashed at the Silverstone factory after Alonso's amazing pace in Montreal.

This weekend Krack arrived in the Ardennes with a different configuration on his lower rear wings and decided to install it on Alonso's car.. The 44 laps to Spa could be very long between the Mercedes, but the Spaniard, despite his ugly mistake on Saturday, took the helm again with verve.

Szafnauer, on Sunday, in the 'paddock' of Spa. EFE

Thanks to the advantage in the first sector, based on the Eau Rouge climb and the Kemmel straight, he could hold off his rivals in the intermediate section. To this we had to add the good treatment of the tires, whose degradation was able to limit up to the levels of the beginning of the season. An undoubted merit if we take into account the opinion of his partner. “I never found balance in the car, which also ate the tires,” admitted Lance Stroll.

There are already 102 points that separate the Aston Martin drivers, although Alonso only has one margin over Lewis Hamilton. The fight against his old nemesis will be one of the incentives until the end of the year. Of course, no one wants to give an inch, although perhaps only Alonso can notice the smallest detail. This was made clear in one of his radio messages in Spa. “On the penultimate lap his taillights came on. I'm sure he was charging for the fastest lap, but I don't know if they allow us that engine map during the race,” he commented.