Fernando Alonso says he’s been enjoying being “active and ironic” on social media amid online gossip that he’s in a relationship with Taylor Swift.
The internet has been ablaze with unverified rumors that the two-time champion has been dating the 12-time Grammy winner. Rather than ignore or rebuff the rumors, Alonso took to social media to post a video of himself winking at the camera to the backing track of Swift’s song “Karma” and with the caption “race week era,” an apparent reference to the singer’s “Eras” tour.
@fernandoalonso
Asked about how he had reacted to the sudden boom in international interest, Alonso said he took it as a sign that the sport was able to attract new fans if it played its cards right online.
“I think I’ve been always active and ironic a little bit on social media,” he said. “I remember (in) the Ferrari days also doing a lot of samurai quotes and things like that.
“I think we didn’t have the fan base that we have now — you know, this younger generation. I think also other drivers they have like guys taking care of their social media channels and something like that; me, no, so maybe they see a little bit more authentic way of doing things.
“I’m maybe not correct all the time, so I’m whatever — so there are a lot of things going on.”
But asked directly whether there was any truth to the rumors about him and Swift, the Spaniard opted to leave a blank space.
“Nothing to say,” he said. “I don’t comment!”
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The Spaniard was keen to steer attention to the weekend, though the ordinarily ambitious Aston Martin driver said he was preparing to take a more conservative approach in Azerbaijan in light of the newly modified sprint format.
“I know there is always the talk of chaotic race or difficult weekends,” he said. “But at the moment when you have a competitive car the opportunity is only to make a mistake, to be honest, and to really make your weekend bad if you have something going really wrong in Q1 and things like that.
“I don’t see much of an opportunity of taking advantage of it or capitalizing on something unless Red Bull does a mistake, so it’s a weekend of avoiding mistakes, not a weekend of making something special, let’s say. We need to approach in a very cautious manner.”
Alonso did say he was a fan of the reduction in practice, having understood the lack of excitement in the pre-qualifying track time during his years observing from the F1 sidelines.
“When I was out of the sport in those two years and I was at home, I was not watching practice,” he said. “I have to be honest — they were just too long and boring. So I see the point of making something that was different in the weekend. We have to embrace that. We have to help F1, and hopefully the fans will give us good feedback on the weekend.”