Fernando Alonso
By winning two world championships in succession, Fernanado Alonso, the brilliantly gifted man from Oviedo, managed to single-handedly turn his countries’ passion for motor sport away from both rallying and motor cycle racing. Heroes such as Sainz, Nieto, Criville, and Gibernau were well and truly eclipsed for a whole new generation Spanish fans that had previously viewed Formula 1 with something of a mild disinterest.
Introduced to four wheels when his father built the then two-year old Fernando a kart, Alonso established himself as a star of the future between the ages of 13 and 18, as he won wherever he raced - from local festivals on home-made courses to regional and national championships the length and breadth of Spain. He also took his talents overseas, winning the world junior title in 1996 at the age of 15 and finishing second in the senior European Championship two years later. The success, however, merely precipitated his move into car racing at the earliest opportunity.
Eschewing Formula Ford, Formula Renault and even F3, Alonso jumped straight into the Spanish-based Formula Nissan series, where he was under the guidance of former Minardi F1 pilot Adrian Campos. Incredibly, he won the title at his first attempt, with six wins, nine poles and eight fastest laps, earning himself the right to try a Minardi F1 car and attracting the attention of renowned driver manager Flavio Briatore.
Despite creating ripples in the grand prix paddock, Alonso moved into the supporting FIA F3000 series for 2000, where he brought Telefonica backing to the established Team Astromega. A difficult learning year among more seasoned drivers restricted his scoring opportunities, but Alonso showed how much he had progressed by the final race, dominating at the notorious Spa-Francorchamps circuit to almost overshadow the title showdown between Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian – two drivers who would not get an F1 opportunity – and finish fourth in the final standings.
Confirmation of a management contract with Briatore quickly followed, and the Spaniard found himself being farmed out to Minardi, where he began his F1 career the following year. Now under the wing of Australian Paul Stoddart, Alonso flourished in impoverished circumstances, easily out-performing team-mates Tarso Marques and Alex Yoong in both qualifying and races. A best finish of tenth at the German Grand Prix, and top qualifying of 17th in the USA, did not go unnoticed, and Briatore was quick to take his protégé back under his wing at Renault before anyone else could lay claim to him.
A year on the racing sidelines followed, testing for Renault and honing his already considerable talents in the knowledge that Briatore intended to fit him into the team in 2003. Jenson Button was to make way for the Spaniard, who then teamed up with Jarno Trulli for his return to F1 action. With the ‘Regie's’ return to front running form, Alonso was able to take his first pole position and a podium finish only second time out, in Malaysia, before adding further top three results in Brazil - albeit after trashing the R23 and bringing out the red flag - and, then to great acclaim, in his Spanish homeland. Second place in Barcelona would have been a highlight in itself, had it not been for the feats of Hungary, where Alonso, still only 22, dominated from pole, lapping champion-elect Michael Schumacher on the way to a crushing maiden win - the youngest driver ever to stand on the top step in grand prix racing. Sixth in the championship with 55 points - 22 more than his more experienced team-mate – merely underlined the Spaniard's huge talent.
Alonso remained with Renault in 2004 and, while unable to add a second victory to his tally, he scored points in twelve of the 18 races, including three podiums - in France, Germany and Hungary - as well as taking a superb pole position at Magny-Cours. He was, for a while, put under pressure by the performances of his team mate Jarno Trulli, culminating in the Italian’s stunning victory at Monaco. Whilst there was a slight feeling that the Fernando’s sensational rise had started to run out of steam, he ended the year with another impressive performance in the Brazilian Grand Prix to end up fourth place in the drivers' championship and another 59 points under his belt.
Renault went into the 2005 season having marked itself out as potential title contenders in pre-season testing, and so it proved, with Giancarlo Fisichella claiming victory in the opening round before Alonso followed up with a hat-trick of wins in Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino to stretch out an commanding championship lead. This early season form has was maintained as the confident Spaniard added wins in the European and French Grands Prix to further strengthen his ambitions to become the sport's youngest ever World Champion.
Particularly impressive was his cool head under pressure and the handling of his points lead over Kimi Räikkönen as the Finn mounted a late season challenge. The amazing Spaniard made but a single serious error, (at Montreal) throughout a season in which he kept all his rival at arms length and capped the year with a dominant win in China to confirm he always had the outright speed in reserve if needed.
Having secured his first World Championship crown, Alonso then proceeded to cause shock-waves across Formula 1 as he announced that he had signed a contract to move to McLaren for the 2007. This left him with the difficult task of maintaining his working relationship with the Renault team he knew he would be leaving at the end of the season. In the event a storming start to the year, which saw Fernando winning six of the first nine races, left little time for recriminations, as both side got on with the business of wrapping up a second successive title. Just when everything seemed calm, Renault and Alonso hit choppy waters as their mass damper suspension was at first protested, and subsequently outlawed on appeal. This put them on the back foot a Ferrari and Michael Schumacher relentlessly closed what had seemed an unassailable gap. Tensions were further heightened at Monza when Alonso was penalized for inadvertently ‘blocking’ Felipe Massa during qualifying. Before the race the distraught Spaniard said with some dismay. “I don’t consider any more that Formula 1 is a sport.”
Despite putting in a superb drive from a lowly grid position, Alonso’s Renault engine failed him, leaving Schumacher only two points behind with three races remaining and the title race wide open. Things looked bleaker after the next race in China when under changeable weather conditions Ferrari prevailed and the Spaniard slipped behind the German in the point’s standings. A week later, the title seemed to be slipping inexorably from Fernando’s grasp until Schumacher’s hitherto impregnable Ferrari blew its engine. The Renault driver then assumed control, winning the race to open up what proved to be an unassailable a ten-point gap with just one round to go. Following second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix, Alonso had cemented his second consecutive World Championship at the tender age of just 26.
However his decision to switch from Renault to McLaren-Mercedes for the 2007 season was to prove – in the short to term at least – a disastrous one for the Spaniard in both terms of prestige and fulfillment. Arriving at Woking as the true heir-apparent to the newly retired Michael Schumacher armed with a three-year contract and number one driver status, everything seemed set fair for further World Championship winning successes. Instead, the Spaniard was caught in a maelstrom of drama and intrigue much of which was of his own making.
The arrival of the brilliant – but inexperienced – Lewis Hamilton combined with the McLaren hierarchy’s failure to impose team orders found Alonso cutting an increasing brooding and isolated figure within the team. Brilliant performances to win in Malaysia and Monaco were but a mere memory as his rookie team mate swept to the head of the driver’s championship by mid season. However, another masterly performance in the European Grand Prix, when Hamilton failed to score any points, put the Spaniard back in the championship equation.
At the next race in Hungary the pair crossed each other during qualifying, with the upshot being Alonso facing a demotion on the grid and the ultimate punishment, handing the opportunityof a victory to his team mate. The fall-out from all this was to prove siezmic even in the usually shock-proof World of Formula 1 and opened-up the Pandora’s box of the McLaren ‘Spygate’ saga which was to cost both Alonso and the team so dearly.
Although it was obviously untenable for both parties to continue together in the long term, McLaren continued to provide to Fernando with race winning equipment, and he put in another tremendous performance to win the Italian Grand Prix. The title at this stage seemed to be a straight fight between the Alonso and Hamilton, but a brilliant late run by Kimi Räikkönen, who won three of the last four races, saw the Finn pip the McLaren pair by a single point to clinch his first World Championship.
With the season over, McLaren and Alonso negotiated a divorce that saw the Spaniard returning to Renault with his reputation seriously tarnished in the eyes of many Formula 1 fans. Undoubtedly he is still a brilliant racing driver and quite capable of sustaining a Championship challenge against anybody given a competitive machine, but he starts 2008 on the back foot with a car that seems very unlikely to be able to match the pace of McLaren or Ferrari. The Spaniard could well find that a third World Championship may very difficult to achieve unless the ‘Prancing Horse’ should come calling…
