Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards
I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?
I. Magic Tricks
You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)
But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."
In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.
II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets
This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?
From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.
Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)
2008.
Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible
2009.
Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?
2010.
This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!
2011.
Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards
2012.
This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??
2013.
Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form
2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):
For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one
2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):
The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"
III. Why Does This Matter?
*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs
This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!
There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.
But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(
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Part One of the Newly Wed Game
A few things happened that evening.
The first was Steve quickly came to terms that he knew a lot about Eddie. That made sense. They hung out a lot. He knew a lot about Robin too because he cared about her. The difficult part of this was the fact Eddie knew a lot about him. And how warm inside that made him feel.
It was the way after the game, Steve went for seconds on the hot dogs and Eddie handed him the barbecue sauce and relish without a word. Steve only hesitated for a moment.
The second thing that happened was Steve tried to imagine how he’d feel if a girl he was dating knew all those things about him.
The third thing was trying to imagine Eddie as a girl.
But he didn’t need to. The image was already perfect with Eddie as is.
The fourth thing was a talk. After the barbecue, Eddie drove him and Robin back in his van. Robin was dropped off first and that was the first time Steve spoke up the entire ride.
“Can we talk?”
“Yeah”, Eddie answered easily.
He drove them out to a convenience store. Eddie went inside and Steve thought he’d come back with beers or something but Eddie surprised him with Coke flavored slushies.
“Meet me in the back”, Eddie said through the window. He went through the van’s back door while Steve just climbed through the front. Eddie closed one door, leaving the other open to get a breeze from the warm summer night.
Steve started speaking and it felt so disjointed and chaotic and oh god is this what was going on in Robin’s brain all the time? It was like he was vomiting words and by the end of it he expected Eddie to have either the blank face of someone not following or the bewildered look of someone caught in a verbal storm. Instead he looked, almost contemplative.
“Sooooo, lemme get this straight. You think you might be into me, based on what happened in that game?”
He said it so plainly and succinctly and it made Steve feel like an idiot. But he nodded anyway.
“Dude, I think you’re getting your wires crossed. I mean I know I’ve got the curly locks, but it’s Nancy you should be after.”
“If all it took was curly hair to make me fall I’d be dating Dustin!”, Steve shouted. He kicked his legs a little, hanging off the edge of the van. He was feeling restless. This was new territory and he didn’t know what came next.
“The only reason we did all that was so Nancy would see you’re still boyfriend material.”
“Yeah well, we shouldn’t’ve gotten every question right then”, Steve said.
Eddie’s back was against the side of the van, his legs stretched out right behind Steve. “I kinda lost track of the plan.”
“Why’s it so important to you that Nancy and I get back together?”
Eddie smiled a little before looking away. “Because it just makes sense, man. I mean, nothing against Jonathan, but you and her are like....a couple at the end of the world.”
Steve let out a frustrated laugh. “Is that your way of rejecting me?”
“Has this been your way of coming on to me? And I thought you were flirting royalty.” Eddie had seen Steve in action. He was never this timid about it. He always went for what he wanted.
“I never flirt unless I’m sure the other person is into me to.”
Eddie felt his walls getting weaker. Inside of him there was a mini-Eddie screaming to be let out. I’m into you! I’M into YOU! Flirt with me! Fucking do it!
Eddie pushed it down. Steve already had a high school sweetheart with whom to live his picket fence dreams. And those dreams couldn’t happen with him.
“You and Nancy just make sense.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.” Steve tossed his empty cup to the ground and moved, closing the van door, shutting out the sounds of cars going down the street. “It doesn’t make any sense to me at all.”
And then he straddled Eddie’s lap.
“Steve....what are you doing?”
“Hmm”, Steve moved a bit to get comfortable. “Now see, this makes sense to me. It’s just missing...” Steve moved Eddie’s hand, the one currently empty to sit on his hip.
The straw hung limp in his mouth. Was this really happening right now?
“Does this make sense to you?”, Steve asked, his hands against the van walls, caging Eddie in with his body.
And fuck if that didn’t do things to him. Then he remembered witnessing King Steve pull similar moves in the hallway, getting girls to focus solely on him. And fuck if getting the Steve Harrington Special didn’t do things to him. Eddie said the half finished slush down, only half caring if it fell over and put his other hand on Steve’s hip.
He didn’t know if this made sense. In fact, he was pretty sure it was all nonsense. But Eddie wasn’t about to tell Steve to get out of his lap.
“You and Nancy”, Eddie said in a low voice, although it was more of a reminder to himself than to Steve.
Steve didn’t want to hear her name anymore. So he leaned in and kissed Eddie. When he pulled back, Eddie’s eyes were closed but he was still trying to talk.
“You and...you and Nan-”
Steve kissed him again. This time when he pulled back, he watched Eddie take a breath as his eyes fluttered.
“You and-”
“You. Only you Eddie.”
Steve leaned in for a third when someone banged on the van.
“Hey no loitering! You and your broad get a move on!”
Steve grinned. “You’re my broad.”
“Actually, it’s my van and I’m driving. So you’re the broad sweet-cheeks.” And then Eddie gave him a daring squeeze of those cheeks and Steve felt his blood jump.
Years of getting his ass slapped by other jocks didn’t prepare him for this.
----------------
It started as a slow, on the down low thing. For Steve, it was because he was afraid of falling too hard too fast. Of Eddie getting tired of him. Of a devastating dumping. For Eddie, it was because he was waiting for Steve’s experimentation to be over and for him to go back to be the straight boy right out of every father’s dream for their little princess.
They kissed in private but in public the affection showed in other ways. In ways they were both realizing had always been there. Eddie being loud and obnoxious in most places but still knocking politely when coming to Steve’s house. Steve buying more hair spray for himself and throwing some hair ties into the basket as well.
The little things.
This goes on for a month and while it kills Steve to not tell Robin, he himself is not entirely sure what he’d tell her. “Yes I like girls but I also like Eddie. No, not guys. Just Eddie.”
What sense did that make? Steve tried looking at other guys but none of them compared. He tried looking at other girls too with the same result. So maybe he was just attracted to Eddie for the rest of his life. He could deal with that.
What he couldn’t deal with was coming out to Mike Wheeler.
Mike had been tasked with going to Eddie’s trailer to try and finesse some info about the new campaign. He’d lost rock, paper, scissors. Whatever. Mike took this task seriously. So of course, he was gonna scope out the situation. He noticed Steve’s car was parked out front. Mike didn’t know what those two did all the time together. They didn’t share any of the same interests as far as he knew.
He tiptoed around the trailer. The blinds to Eddie’s room were shut. So he went over to the kitchen window. If Eddie was in a good mood, this could be easy. If Steve ruined it by saying something stupid, that made Mike’s job way more difficult. He stood on a milk crate in time to see Steve come into view and go into the fridge.
Eddie came soon after, his hair looking crazier that usually, like he’d been thrashing it around. He hugged Steve from behind and kissed the back of his neck and Mike almost lost his shit.
“I thought you were too tired to move?”, Steve asked.
“Baby I just couldn’t wait. Missed you too much.”
There was more gooey, lovey-dovey stuff which would gross Mike out if he wasn’t already pissed.
“I can’t believe this!”, Mike shouted, grabbing their attention.
“Wheeler...”, Eddie said in a warning tone.
“You guys were cheating at that game!”, he accused. “You rigged it by pretending to not be dating!”
Both let out an exasperated sigh before Mike disappeared from the window.
“I’m telling Nancy!”
“Wheeler!”
“Mike!”
Tag Team:
@darkwitchoferie
@archerwithmanybows
@henderdads
@menamesniall
@bornonthesavage
@grtwdsmwhr
@vi-the-best-you-can
@kardinalkalamity
@leather-and-freckles
@resident-gay-bitch
@goodolefashionedloverboi
@snowstar2368
@alienace
Part three
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