Alonso told ‘I’m ready’ as retired driver sends shock Aston Martin offer

Rubens Barrichello ‘ready’ to launch F1 return as Fernando Alonso’s team-mate

The Brazilian is best known for his time as Michael Schumacher’s team-mate at Ferrari, with Barrichello also partnering Jenson Button during Brawn GP’s historic title-winning season in 2009.

Barrichello never formally announced his retirement from F1 upon his departure from Williams at the close of the 2011 season, with the 52-year-old still competing this year in the Brazil-based Stock Car Pro Series.

He was briefly linked with a shock return to F1 in late 2014 with the beleaguered Caterham outfit, with the deal scuppered after the team entered administration.

Fernando Alonso vs Lance Stroll: Aston Martin head-to-head stats for F1 2024

???? F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

???? F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Alonso‘s current team-mate Lance Stroll, has been a divisive figure since making his F1 debut as a teenager in 2017, with the 26-year-old’s billionaire father Lawrence Stroll in charge of the Aston Martin team.

Stroll recently came under fire for a mistake at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he got stuck in the gravel trap while attempting to recover from a crash on the formation lap.

The Canadian was the subject of brutal taunts from the crowd at Interlagos, with fans heard chanting the name of Aston Martin’s Brazilian reserve driver Felipe Drugovich as Stroll’s day went from bad to worse.

Stroll’s desire and motivation to succeed in F1 have been frequently questioned throughout his career, with wild rumours last year suggesting that he was considering leaving motor racing entirely to take up a professional career in tennis.

Guenther Steiner, the former Haas team principal, recently claimed that Stroll “doesn’t want to be” an F1 driver and is only on the grid to satisfy the ambitions of his father.

Steiner previously criticised Stroll for being “non existent” alongside Alonso in F1 2024, with the Canadian trailing his team-mate by 38 points in the Drivers’ standings.

Despite a troubled F1 2024 season, Aston Martin have been widely tipped to emerge as title contenders in the years to come, having lured F1 design guru Adrian Newey from Red Bull earlier this year.

Newey stands as the most decorated individual in F1 history, with more than 200 race wins and a combined total of 26 Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles to his name, with Max Verstappen’s F1 2024 triumph the latest to involve the 65-year-old.

The arrival of Newey has resulted in fresh hope that Alonso could finally secure an elusive third World Championship when the new regulations are introduced in F1 2026, two decades after the last of his two titles with Renault.

And in a recent appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Barrichello quipped that he would “be ready” to launch an F1 comeback if Alonso wants him to become his team-mate.

He said: “If he comes to me now and says ‘I want you to be my team-mate at Aston’, I’ll still be ready!”

Barrichello went on to pay tribute to Alonso’s passion for motor racing after the 43-year-old registered his 400th F1 appearance in Brazil, adding: “What I love about Alonso is the fact that you look in his eyes and he still loves it.

“That’s what I tell my boys: ‘You have problems, and you will have bigger ones, but it depends how much is here [in the heart].

“If you like it, or you see you love it, you solve every problem possible. So if you love it, and you keep fit, [you will be successful].”

Put to him that it hurts Alonso to lose, Barrichello revealed his experience of partnering the two-time World Champion during a virtual Le Mans race.

He said: “I saw that when he called me three years ago and said: ‘I want you to be my team-mate at the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans.’

“There’s no one more competitive than me, because there was a time that I was at the house with my son, Fernando, and he would come and say: ‘Dad, lunch is prepared.’

“I said: ‘OK, I’ll be a minute.’

“The next time he came in and said: ‘Dad, dinner is ready’ – I haven’t moved from my sim because I was [so invested] there.

“Fernando was the same way. I would come in during the early hours of a day and he was already there, so for sure I can prove to you that he’s passionate.

“Unfortunately, he was driving and had a small crash and we didn’t know virtually that you had to press an ask [button] for you to come into the pit lane.

“You had to press a button to get tyres and fuel – and he only got tyres.

“And because the track is 20 kilometres long, after eight minutes of the race we run out of fuel.

“We kept telling the big guns, saying: ‘Look, you’re never going to have Alonso and Barrichello again, please let us go back in.’

“They allowed us to come back five laps after, but we still finished the race. We were competitive, it was just a pity that we had [the problem].”