Fernando Alonso Career Highlights in F1

Let’s talk about the Spanish racing driver, whose path in Formula 1 has been quite illustrious. Since he joined the championship 22 years ago, he has been constantly named one of the most talented drivers in the world. Going through Fernando Alonso career highlights in F1 will help us remember why this guy is one of the brightest stars in its history. Follow the latest Formula 1 updates at online sportsbooks in Spain.

Fernando Alonso Career Highlights in F1: Career Start

Fernando Alonso made his Formula 1 debut with Minardi in 2001. Though he drove the slowest car on the grid, he impressed Benetton’s principal Flavio Briatore who offered him a test driver seat in his new team Renault for 2002. After one of the seats became vacant Alonso took it and moved on to drive for Renault in 2003. He picked up three podium finishes and a win in Hungary. 

The driver’s partnership with Renault continued in 2004 where he managed to take several podium finishes. It wasn’t until 2005 that Renault built a truly competitive car. In 2005, Alonso took seven wins and became a World Champion in Brazil. A year later, he made it again despite being fought by none other than Michael Schumacher – we recapped his career not that long ago.

McLaren, Mercedes, and Return to Renault

In 2007, Alonso joined McLaren, having left his Renault career for a while. However, despite a good start to the season, his time at McLaren was marked by internal team issues, particularly with his teammate Lewis Hamilton and team principal Ron Dennis. Both Alonso and Hamilton missed the title by one point. He left the team at the end of the season.

Alonso returned to Renault for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Although he didn’t achieve the same level of success as in his earlier stint, he still showed some great drives occasionally. Infamously, he took the win at Singapore when his teammate deliberately crashed to advance Alonso up the field. The next race at Fuji was also dominated by Alonso, but this time absolutely legitimate.

Missed Opportunities with Ferrari

In 2010, Alonso became a Scuderia Ferrari driver, where he spent five seasons until 2014. Despite being consistently competitive in every season for the Maranello-based team, he narrowly missed winning the championship on two occasions. In 2010, he lost the title due to the team’s error and so did the in 2012. The latter to this day is one of the best examples of a terrible car chasing the title to the last race. At the end of 2014, after several years of unfruitful title challenge, Alonso left the team. 

Fernando Alonso Career Highlights in F1: Reunion with Renault 

After leaving Ferrari, Alonso rejoined McLaren in 2015. The team struggled with performance issues from the beginning due to a highly unreliable engine, which was infamously dubbed by Alonso in Canada a “GP2 Engine”. Great expectations of 2015 never materialized and Alonso faced challenges not for just podiums but getting points at all. 

The 2016 season was a good step forward and Alonso showed some of the greatest drives, especially at Austin where he finished 5th. In 2017 the team lost its momentum and became a backmarker yet again. Even a switch to Renault engines in 2018 wasn’t helpful enough, and Alonso retired from F1 at the end of the season. You can bet on him to reunite with the team for the 3rd time at online gambling sites in Spain.

Other Auto Race Championships

After leaving Renault, Alonso took a break from Formula 1. During his time away from the championship, he explored other forms of auto racing. Notably, he competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with Toyota Gazoo Racing, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, and taking the 2019 title with the team.

He competed in Indy500 thrice, but never managed to finish higher than 21st. Also, Alonso won in 2019 the 24 Hours of Daytona, another major marathon race.

Return to Formula 1 with Alpine and Aston Martin 

In 2021, Fernando Alonso returned to Formula 1 and had a good couple of seasons with Alpine (previously known as Renault). However, in 2022 internal conflicts and poor management by the team saw Alonso leave the team for Aston Martin the following year.

In 2023, to everyone’s excitement and against all Everygame odds, Alonso finished 3rd in the first F1 race. His first season with the Silverstone-based team was a huge success, and the driver himself expressed that it was his probably best season in F1. In total, he took eight podiums after reuniting with F1 and doesn’t seem to stop. His path in auto racing isn’t over, so we’ll definitely see more Fernando Alonso career highlights in F1 in the future.

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