Three races into the 2015 season, his 15th season in Formula 1, and the Double World Champion has no points to his name.
Adding a third championship is not going to happen this year.
Alonso’s return to the McLaren team was probably the biggest surprise of last year’s seat swapping season.
Mainly because the Spaniard was sitting comfortably at Ferrari with a contract to see him through until the end of 2016.
However, it was no secret that after finishing runners-up in the championship three times in four seasons, Alonso was growing impatient.
His Italian squad’s inability to give him a race machine capable of taking the fight to the then reigning champion, Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing was frustrating him.
If you believe paddock whispers, the Spaniard was looking to break his contract at the end of 2013.
But the shake-up in the engine and aerodynamic regulations that came into effect last year possibly kept Alonso at Ferrari throughout 2014 as he waited to gauge where Ferrari stood in the pecking order.
Unfortunately, the scarlet team’s 2014 engine failed to prove a match for Mercedes and for the first time since coming on board in 2010, the Alonso and Ferrari partnership failed to yield a win. The Scuderia’s lack of engine power opened the door for McLaren to poach him.
The irony of McLaren now paying Alonso to drive for them is not lost on race fans.
Back in 2007, when Alonso first joined McLaren alongside Lewis Hamilton and the teammate relationship turned sour, Fernando ratted on his team and got them hauled up for spying.
The sequence of events eventually led to McLaren being fined US$100mil (RM370mil) by the sport’s governing body.
Nobody would have bet on Alonso returning to McLaren, but as they say in Formula 1, anything can happen.
With Honda making a return to the sport as an engine supplier this year, the iconic partnership of McLaren and Honda is rekindled.
You can’t fault Alonso for thinking it might be an opportune moment to jump on-board the “McHonda” train. After all, the partnership helped Ayrton Senna to his three titles and Alain Prost to his third, all in the space of four years, from 1988 to 1991.
As Renault and Ferrari can attest, building a modern Formula 1 engine is a complex affair.
In fact, the correct term now is power unit, as the engine is just one component that is connected with the ability to harvest kinetic as well as heat energy, and deploy an extra boost at the push of a button.
Unfortunately, Honda’s current foray into Formula 1 has been quite a struggle, to put
it mildly.
The Japanese giant’s power unit is nowhere up to the mark and is now faced with the huge task of getting it reliable and competitive as soon as possible.
To put things in perspective, it’s been 10 years since Alonso won his maiden World Title with Renault.
A year later, at the age of 25, he became the youngest ever Double World Champion with Renault.
He was then lured to McLaren with the promise of more championships with only a rookie driver as this teammate.
Unfortunately, that rookie was Hamilton, and the Alonso-McLaren partnership went up in smoke.
Alonso spent the 2008 and 2009 back at Renault in the mid-field as he watched his former McLaren teammate Hamilton, claim his maiden title followed by Brawn GP’s domination.
Nonetheless, he still managed to drag the R28 onto the podium and even notched up a couple of race wins.
In 2010, there was an opening at Ferrari and the Italian squad seized the opportunity to sign Alonso, again with the promise of a championship winning car.
At 29, Fernando was really just coming into his prime and paddock punters were sure that the partnership would help him to that elusive third title.
And they came close - down to the very last race in 2010 and 2012 - but sadly, the might of Red Bull Racing and Vettel got the better of them.
Alonso has now gone eight seasons without winning a championship, make that nine by the end of this year.
He turns 34 this July and is the third oldest driver on the grid.
I see this move to McLaren as his final competitive seat while still in his prime.
Last weekend in China, Alonso trundled around the Shanghai International Circuit in his uncompetitive McLaren race car having qualified 18th.
Towards the end of the race, he faced the ignominy of being lapped by both the Ferraris as he hobbled home to finish 12th.
For a driver as hungry and passionate about winning as Alonso, I can only imagine what he must be going through.
He must be reflecting on his decision to part ways with Ferrari just as they are on the rise again.
He must be asking himself what does he have to do to win his next World Championship.
Well short of turning back time, he can only do what I’ve seen him do during his second stint at Renault and definitely during those difficult days at Ferrari.
He has to rally the team around him, and spur them - nay drag them - forward by sheer determination to succeed.
He has to hold his head up high and stay positive and hope that his motivation will rub off on those around him.
He has to dig deep and drive his McLaren-Honda further up the grid than it deserves.
Alonso has to repeat all that here at McLaren if he ever wants to add a third World Championship title before he retires.
I for one believe that he deserves it, but in the meantime the clock ticks on.
