VIDEO | Fernando Alonso's CRAZY F1 career!
General
Fernando Alonso is considered to be one of the most talented drivers to ever grace Formula 1 and he has had a remarkable career in motorsport. As he prepares to enter the latest chapter of this incredible story, we thought we’d look back on the crazy career of Fernando Alonso so far.
2001 - 2003
Fernando Alonso started his Formula 1 career all the way back in 2001 with Minardi where he had previously been a test driver. In an underwhelming debut year he scored zero points with a best finish of tenth at the German Grand Prix. He spent a year off the grid in 2002 as he familiarised himself with the Renault team as he acted as their test driver before making the step up a year later. In a record breaking 2003 season he became the youngest driver to win a pole position at the season's second race, the Malaysian Grand Prix, and broke Bruce McLaren's record as the youngest Formula One race winner at the Hungarian Grand Prix later in the year. He achieved four podium finishes in 2003 and was sixth in the World Drivers' Championship with 55 points.
2004 & 2005
2004 saw more improvement as he took four podiums and a pole position in France on route to fourth in the standings. However, things really took off in 2005. In a dual with McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, Alonso held off the Finn thanks to reliability and took his first World Championship. Alonso eclipsed Emerson Fittipaldi as the youngest Drivers' Champion with seven victories, six pole positions and fourteen podium finishes for 133 points. He became Spain’s first and only World Champion to date.
2006
He would back it up a year later as he stormed into the lead of the ’06 season, scoring 84 of a possible 90 points. However, a ban on Alonso’s mass damper device and development for Michael Schumacher meant the pair were level with two races to go. Alonso won the Japanese Grand Prix whilst the German retired, and with P2 at the season finale at Interlagos the Spaniard became the youngest ever two time World Champion.
2007 - 2009
A move to McLaren alongside rookie Lewis Hamilton was in the offing and in one of the closest title races of all time he missed out by one point to Raikkonen in the ’07 World Championship finishing third on countback to Lewis Hamilton. After a year away he returned to Renault and despite getting the most out of his car, it lacked speed and he finished fith and ninth in the Drivers’ Championship over the next two years before jumping ship again, this time heading to Ferrari.
2010 - 2015
Over the next four seasons Alonso would come close to adding to his World Championship tally but ultimately he’d fall short, each time to Sebastian Vettel. In 2010 he missed out at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, in 2011 he only managed one win and finished fourth. In 2012, he’d push Vettel all the way but the German would hold on in dramatic circumstances as he survived an opening lap spin to take a third straight title and then in 2013, despite finishing second again it was another season dominated by Vettel.
His final season with the Scuderia was underwhelming as he failed to win a single race finishing 6th. He was replaced at Ferrari by none other than Vettel and the Spaniard returned to another familiar team, joining McLaren as they tried to adapt to life without Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes with their 2015 car powered by Honda.
2015 - 2018
His relationship with them was rocky to say the least, at the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix he described the Honda engine as a GP2 engine. After three incredibly disappointing seasons with Honda McLaren switched to Renault engines but in Alonso’s only year with their power, he could only manage 11th in 2018 prompting his retirement from F1.
The Triple Crown
Rewind to 2006 quickly and Alonso picked up the Monaco Grand Prix, part one of the triple crown of motorsport and he had his eyes on the full thing. In 2017 he tested himself in the indy 500 but so far he has been unsucesful. However, in 2018 and 2019 Alonso added the 24 hours of Le Mans title making it two out of three for the triple crown.
The Return
Between his retirement from F1 and now he’s been regularly linked with a return to F1 and in July 2020 it was finally confirmed that he’d return to the grid with Alpine. And that’s where we are now Alonso is set to compete in the 2021 season alongside Esteban Ocon. He’s had one of the most remarkable motorsport careers which is set to go on so there’s bound to be something we’ve missed and there's bound to be more to come!
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