Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso Diaz was born in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. His father, Jose Luis Alonso, was an amateur kart driver and mother Ana Diaz worked in a department store. When Fernando was a child, his father built a go-cart for his older sister. When his sister did not express an interest, Fernando took over and has stayed behind the wheel ever sense.

At the age of 5, Fernando Alonso received a kart racing license but had already racked his first informal win in a local go-cart race. At seven, he won his first official kart race at Pola de Laviana.

Alonso earned his first championship win as karting champion of Asturias and Galicia in 1989. He was able to move into the cadet category the following year and began to receive financial support from a kart importer named Genis Marco to meet the ever-growing budgetary needs of the sport.

Mirroring his success in prior years, Fernando Alonso led the cadet category and was named champion of Asturias and the Basque country in 1990. He was an overall runner-up in Spain in the 1991 Spanish Cadet National Championship due to non-participation in some races. 

In 1993, Alonso was able to join the Italian American Motor Engineering team and raced his way to three Spanish Junior National Championships in a row from 1993 to 1995. His performance elevated Alonso to the world stage, and he placed third at the 1995 CIF-KIA Cadets’ Rainbow Trophy. During this time period, Alonso worked a mechanic for younger cart drivers to support his racing career. Championship wins would continue for the next four years as Alonso worked himself to a car racing debut at age 17.

Alonso’s first professional car racing was at age 17 in the 1999 Euro Open by Nissan. He won the title in the last race of the season after achieving nine pole positions and six race wins.

Following a December 1999 test in a Formula 1 car, Alonso joined Minardi’s race team in 2001. In 2002, he transitioned to Renault as a test driver before being promoted to the race team in 2003.

At the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso became the then-youngest driver to win a pole position. 

While his record was later broken, in 2003, Fernando Alonso became the youngest person to win a Formula 1 race at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He was 22 and would finish the season at sixth in the World Drivers’ Championship following four podium finishes. 

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso won the first title of his Formula 1 career with two races to spare in the season. He won seven races, secured six pole positions and fourteen podium finishes through the year.

Back at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2006, Fernando Alonso completes the race in second place but secures his second World Championship in the final competition of the year.

Alonso originally planned to race for Ferrari in 2009 but a contract extension held back the transfer through 2010, his first season with the team. Alonso completed the year in second place in the championship following five race wins throughout the year. A second-place ranking followed in 2012 and 2013. His contract at Ferrari would end before the 2014 season after negotiations fell through.

A three-year deal with McLaren was the start of a multi-year relationship in Formula 1 racing. Complications during the 2015 season led to two point-scoring races and a championship ranking of 17th. The following year was better with a 10th place finish but no podium visits. In 2017, Alonso dropped to 15th in the championship with a top finish of sixth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Despite finishing 10th in the 2018 Driver’s Championship, Fernando Alonso made the decision to leave car racing at the end of the season. Alonso was critical of a lack of racing on-track and technical discussions taking away from the sport. He would stay with McLaren as a brand ambassador through 2019.

After a two-year break, Fernando Alonso returned to Formula 1 racing as a member of team Alpine F1 for the 2021 season. The two-year deal was a lucrative COVID-era contract and reportedly included an unused option for a third year.

At the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, Alonso achieved his first podium finish since 2014 with a third-place ranking. It followed a 2021 season with a sixth-place ranking in the Netherlands, eighth in Italy and sixth in Russia.

In August 2022, Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team announced Fernando Alonso would join the team for the 2023 season as part of a multi-year contract. In a company statement, Alonso said, “No one in Formula 1 today is demonstrating a greater vision and absolute commitment to winning, and that makes it a really exciting opportunity for me.” So far in the 2022 season, Alonso has performed steadily, achieving a points finish at eight consecutive races, including at the Hungarian Grand Prix immediately prior to the Aston Martin announcement.