Fernando Alonso Turns 41 - A Look Back At an Illustrious Career

Fernando Alonso is a Spanish F1 driver with 2 world drivers’ championships and a member of the FIA Hall of Fame. As he turns 41, let’s look at his memorable career highlights.

Alonso’s Childhood

Fernando Alonso was born on 29th July 1981 to the family of Jose and Ana Diaz Alonso in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. His father was an amateur kart racer and explosives factory mechanic, while his mum worked in a department store. He attended Holy Guardian Angel Primary school and institute Leopoldo Alas Clarin of San Lazaro.

Alonso got his desire for karting from his father, who became his mechanic, accountant, counselor, and manager during his karting career. He won his first kart race when he was nine and became the children’s junior championship winner of Asturias in 1988 and 1989. Genis Marco, a go-kart importer, became his mentor after watching him race and sought sponsorship for him to partake in the Europeans series. He entered the Catalan karting championship and won three years consecutively from 1993-95.

Racing Career

Youngest driver to win a Pole position at The Malaysian Grand Prix

Alonso’s career as a junior motor racer began at the 1999 Euro Open by Nissan. He ended the season with nine pole positions and six wins-in 8 races and 16 rounds. He joined Minardi, an Italian racing team, as a test driver in 2000 and became a racing driver for them in 2001. In 2002, the Renault F1 team signed him as a test driver before promoting him to a race driver in 2003. In the same season, Alonso became the youngest driver to win a Pole position at The Malaysian Grand Prix and the youngest F1 winner at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He finished that season with 55 points and four podiums in the world drivers’ championship.

Alonso becomes world champion

In 2005, Alonso became world champion after beating Kimi Raikkonen. He finished with 133 points, fourteen podium finishes, and seven victories. After signing a contract extension with Renault for the 2006 season, Alonso started the season winning six races out of nine. That season, the FIA imposed a ban on tuned mass dampers because it was not favorable to all cars. This slowed Alonso down since Renault was a beneficial to the damper’s effectiveness. He entered the Japanese Grand Prix GP tied-in points with Micheal, but during the race, Schumacher retired because of an engine failure, and Alonso won the race. Fernando entered the Brazilian GP needing just a point to win the championship, his second-place finish made him an F1 champion two years in a row and the youngest driver to ever achieve such a feat.

Racing Careers with other F1 constructors

Alonso’s contract with Renault expired after the 2006 season, and he joined McLaren to partner with Lewis Hamilton for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Conflicting driving choices and issues between them on and off the track made McLaren end his contract by mutual consent. In the same year he rejoined Renault on a 2-year deal and competed for them until he left for Ferrari in 2010 due to a match-fixing investigation.

Joining Ferrari

This led to Alonso joining Ferrari earlier than he was meant to. He raced for Ferrari in 2010, won five races and participated at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, he finished as Vettell runner-up due to his team strategy error. In the 2011 season, he registered 11 podium finishes and won the British Grand Prix (GP) ahead of Vettels, and had 257 points. In 2012, Alonso signed a contract extension that will keep him until 2016.

That season, he finished as a runner-up with 278 points which became the second of his career. Alonso 2013 season and finishing as a runner-up and a win in spain and chinese Grand Prix (GP), the third of his career. In 2014, Ferrari non-competitive cars made him not win any race that season, though he finished second and third at the Hungarian and Chinese Grand Prix.

Alonso’s sabbatical

Alonso left Ferrari because of a contract negotiations breakdown in 2014 and signed a no-opt-out three-year contract clause with McLaren. He raced with McLaren till 2018 when he left F1 because McLaren struggled to improve their engines. He served as an ambassador for McLaren until his contract expired in 2019. During his sabbatical, he participated in the Dakar Rally, Indycar, and Endurance racing.

Historic Return

Alonso made a sensational return to F1 in 2021 with Alpine, a rebrand of Renault, and extended his contract until 2022. Recently, he signed a multi-year deal with Aston Martin to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel for the 2023 season.

Alonso is considered a living legend in F1 and Lewis Hamilton has always said Alonso was one of his greatest rivals. In Alonso’s 20-plus years of racing, he raced with some of the best F1 drivers like Lewis, Sebastian, and Kimi Raikkonen, to name a few.

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