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This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first.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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what i love about mikage is that we are constantly being told that he is an aloof genius who nobody can understand because his mind is simply so much more advanced than everyone else’s, but we also never see him do or say anything actually intelligent, and all we really do see him do is desperately long for affection and companionship and do everything in his power to strive to preserve the genuine human connection he seeks.
with miki we are actually given a reason to believe that he is a child prodigy: he’s good at piano, he’s good at math, he’s knowledgeable about eggs. i’m not saying that’s in any way definitive proof of his “genius” (anthy is also good at piano, utena is also good at math, and knowing the basics of what an egg is isn’t really anything to write home about either) but like. we can believe that he’s smart for a child.
akio positions himself as something of an astronomer, but we are also provided enough evidence into his astronomical insight to realize, before he even admits that he doesn’t really care about stars, that he’s not very knowledgeable about astronomy. and that makes sense for his character too, because why would he care about having knowledge that he cannot use to exploit and dominate others?
but mikage is neither shown to be intelligent nor unintelligent, we are merely told that he is such a genius that it isolates him from his peers, more like a robot than a human. and so it doesn’t actually matter whether or not that’s true, because all that matters is that he’s special in this way, and that conditional power he is afforded through his status as genius is what matters to his role within the narrative.
the figure of the genius is not an exceptional figure in and of itself, but only due to how such a title is positioned in relation to others, and the referent (the ontologically meaningless designation of “intelligence”) is actually beside the point. and what’s more, to be afforded that “specialness” is actually harmful, because it insists on isolating you from your peers for completely arbitrary reasons.
genius is not a pre-discursive, discrete quality, but merely another notion used as a tool to isolate, groom, and exploit people from a very young age within a hegemonic capitalist paradigm that values production over the human cost of the labor necessary to produce it, and/or the patriarchal paradigm that values an idealized fantasy of power over the violence necessary to maintain that system.
not that i’m excusing killing one hundred boys or whatever, but is it any wonder he saw no other way to move forward than to burn the entire edifice down?
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i love media that focuses more on character than plot and bsd does it so well. like every single character is so beautifully written and asgr treats all of them with such care. i know people complain about the death bait but i think its just. hes not going to kill characters unless that is what makes sense for their arc and their story has been told. its why odasaku is so fixated on not killing: because to him, a character is a real being and you cant be so loose with taking lives when you have full control of one.
even when characters die before youve really had a chance to get to know them properly (the flags, and bram now too, for example), asgr still does a rlly good job of establishing them quickly without leaving them one dimensional. they have a lot of life to them even with so little time to show it. contrast that to something like jjk where you could sit with a character for a while and still not feel like you have a good grasp on Who They Are, and. yikes.
I can emotionally attach to bsd characters who show up for a singular chapter of a backstory light novel. jjk gives a character a whole mini arc and theyre still just nothing to me bc gege, like a lot of writers atm, has characters as plot devices rather than people. and asgr does the opposite.
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