Fernando Alonso: the one who never stops

Draft: a fan’s take. Check the details and make it your own before publishing.

Ask F1 drivers who the most complete racer of their era is, and a lot of them will say Fernando Alonso. He has two world titles, which feels like too few, and he simply refuses to stop.

Breaking through

He’s from Oviedo, in northern Spain. He made his F1 debut in 2001 for Minardi, one of the slowest teams on the grid, then joined Renault. In 2003 he won in Hungary and became the youngest Grand Prix winner at the time.

Ending the Schumacher era

In 2005 he beat Kimi Räikkönen to the title and ended Michael Schumacher’s five-year run. In 2006 he beat Schumacher himself in a straight fight, becoming the youngest double world champion at the time.

Fernando Alonso driving the Renault R26 at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix — The Renault R26 in Monaco in 2006, a race he won on his way to a second title. Photo: Polmars;, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The almost years

In 2007 he moved to McLaren, alongside a rookie called Lewis Hamilton. The partnership turned sour fast, and both lost the title to Räikkönen by a single point. He went back to Renault for two seasons, then joined Ferrari in 2010.

At Ferrari he came agonisingly close. In 2010 he went into the final race in Abu Dhabi leading the championship, got stuck behind a slower car after a pit stop and lost the title to Sebastian Vettel. In 2012 he lost to Vettel again, by three points, in a car that was often not the fastest.

Fernando Alonso's Ferrari at the Yas Marina Circuit in 2010 — With Ferrari at Yas Marina in 2010, where that year’s title slipped away. Photo: Jitesh Jagadish from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

McLaren-Honda, and everything else

His second spell at McLaren, with Honda engines from 2015, was hard. At Suzuka in 2015 he complained over the radio that his engine was like a “GP2 engine”, at Honda’s home race, and the line became famous.

So he went looking for other challenges. He raced the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 and led laps before his engine failed. He joined Toyota in endurance racing, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, and took the 2018–19 World Endurance Championship. He even did the Dakar Rally.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrid endurance race car — The Toyota TS050 Hybrid that won Le Mans in 2018, with Alonso among its drivers. Photo: David Merrett from Daventry, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Back again

He returned to F1 with Alpine in 2021 and was on the podium in Qatar that year. In 2023 he moved to Aston Martin and was immediately on the podium, again and again, in his first season with the team. He has now started more Grands Prix than anyone else in the sport.

Fernando Alonso driving for Aston Martin at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix — With Aston Martin at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix. Photo: Liauzh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why he’s special

Thirty-two wins and two titles undersell him. What stands out is how much he gets out of whatever car he’s given, and how much he still wants it, more than twenty years after his first race.