After a month of matchups, thousands of votes and comments, Fernando Alonso has made it to the final beating Nigel Mansell, Max Verstappen, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Mika Hakkinen on his way.
Who is Fernando Alonso?
Biography
Fernando Alonso was born in Oviedo, Spain on the 29 July 1981. He was born to amateur kart driver Jose Luis Alonso and his mother Ana Diaz, he also has an elder sister Lorena, who is a doctor.
EARLY CAREER
Fernando began karting at age 3, after his dad, Jose built a kart for his older sister Lorena. When it was clear that Lorena was not interested in karting Jose passed the kart over to Fernando.
Fernando’s early career was a proper family affair, with Jose being his accountant, manager, and mechanic among other things. Fernando’s mother, Ana helped by sewing his overalls and adjusted them as he grew, the Alonso family were not well off and struggled with the financial demands of karting, at one point they were unable to purchase rain tires, as a result Fernando was forced to use slick tires in the rain.
At the age of seven, Fernando won his first kart race, he would build on his success winning junior championships in 1988 and 1989, this garnered the attention of go-kart importer Genis Marco, who mentored him, he would also organise both personal and sponsorship money allowing Fernando to focus on his karting.
Alonso would continue to win in karting winning multiple championships over the course of several years.
In 1999, seventeen-year-old Fernando made his racing debut at Euro Open by Nissan, Alonso would win the championship with six wins and nine poles.
AS part of Fernando winning, he 1999 Euro Open he was granted a test at a higher level, this was organised and took place at Jerez in Spain with the Minardi F1 team. He would be signed as the Minardi test driver in 2000 before becoming a full-time driver for the team in 2001.
FORMULA 1
Fernando made his debut for the Minardi F1 team, the Spanish driver was unable to score points in an uncompetitive car, his best finish was 10th, and he was classified in 23rd in the Drivers Championship.
Flavio Briatore took Alonso to Renault as test driver in 2002, assisting drivers Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella. His work during this year earned him a call up to a full-time racing squad for 2003. Fernando would break the record for the youngest pole position winner at the second race in Malaysia. He would be the youngest race winner since Bruce McLaren, winning the Hungarian GP at 23. With four podiums he would earn fifty-five points and fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.
2004 would be a slightly better season, albeit without a victory, he would earn fifty-nine points and fourth in the Championship.
BREAKTHROUGH FOR FERNANDO
Fernando Alonso would have a breakthrough season in 2005, after winning three races in four at the beginning of the season set up a season long dual for the Championship. Fernando would prevail winning his first title and the first driver to beat Michael Schumacher since Mika Hakkinen in 1999.
2006 was an even more dominant season for Fernando and Renault, with the Spaniard winning seven races over the course of the season, Fernando would only fail to finish in the top four twice in eighteen races gathering 134 points to his second Drivers Championship in two years.
McLaren and Lewis
The 2007 season saw Fernando head to McLaren to partner rookie Lewis Hamilton. The partnership soon turned sour with Alonso and Hamilton having a tense battle throughout the season. The battle came to a head at the Hungarian GP, when Fernando blocked Hamilton while in the pits, this meant that Lewis would not be able to complete his final run for pole.
The acrimony between the two drivers lead to them failing to secure the Drivers Championship, Fernando and Lewis would end the season tied for points but one point behind the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
The relationship was further strained after the spygate scandal when McLaren were found to be in passion of confidential information about rival Ferrari car, which was given to the team from an employee of the Prancing Horse team.
McLaren were fined multi millions of dollars and thrown out of the Constructors Championship, both drivers were allowed to keep their points as there was no evidence that they were in any way connected with the Scandal.
Renault.
Renault was the next destination for Fernando where he raced for 2008 and 2009. The cars were not competitive enough to allow Alonso to race for the championship, however in 2008 he was able to win Japan and Singapore, the latter was known as crashgate after it emerged that the team had instructed Nelson Piquet Jr to crash on purpose triggering a safety car, this allowed Fernando to win the race, the investigation cleared Fernando of any involvement.
The 2009 season was a disappointing season for Fernando, he would only manage twenty-six points and finish ninth in the driver’s championship.
The lack of double diffuser system meant that the Renault was not competitive against the Brawn and Redbull.
Ferrari
From 2011, Ferrari were unable to provide Alonso with a Championship winning car, leading to the breakdown in the relationship between the two.
Other Racing Series
Fernando Alonso would race in other series including Endurance, Le Man 24 hour and Indycar. During 2017 Formula 1 season McLaren allowed Alonso to miss the Monaco GP to race at the Indianapolis 500, he would qualify fifth and lead a total of twenty-seven laps before his Honda engine would fail twenty-one laps from the end.
He would drive the Indy 500 a further two times failing to qualify for one and finishing in 21st in the other attempt.
Endurance Racing
