Fernando Alonso Biography

Fernando Alonso has revived Formula 1 as a sport in Spain with his masterful driving and championships in the sport. Following is a short Fernando Alonso biography.
 
A two time world champion, Fernando Alonso did not come up to the sport with a silver spoon in his mouth. No, he wanted to be a car driver in a country that loves motor bike racing. Born in Oviedo in the north of Spain, his mother worked in a department store and his dad was a mechanic. His father had loved carting and built him one as well. His family didn’t have the finances for the sport, but luckily he was very good. His constant winning brought in sponsorship. It allowed him to dominate the sport in Spain and across the world when he won a World Championship in 1996.
 
Alonso got his first taste of driving a Formula 1 car with the back marker team Minardi in 1999. He was astounding. How astounding? His laps were 1.5 seconds faster than any done by the teams full time drivers! He was put in Formula 3000, the minor leagues of Formula 1, and finished fourth. The next year he moves to the senior circuit with Minardi and immediately made his mark.
 
The 2001 season saw Minardi in its usual position – dead last. The car was always underfunded, under powered and under developed. It mattered not. The young, little driver from Spain could make it dance. He caught everyone’s attention at famed Monaco. David Coultard in his mighty McLaren was pushed to the back of the field and shockingly couldn’t pass Alonso in the pitiful Minardi. Coultard complained, but teams took notice of the brilliant driving of the little Spaniard.
 
One man, Fabio Briatorie, noticed and signed him to be the Benetton test driver for 2002. Thus begun a magical relationship. By 2003, Alonso was in the starting lineup and impressing. He took his first pole position in the second race at Malaysia and won his first race at Hungary. 2004 saw more development with the car, which led to huge success in 2005.
 
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari had dominated Formula 1 for six seasons. Well, no more. Alonso and the renamed Renault team came to the front. Fernando dominated the season as Ferrari faltered and ran away with it. At the time, he was the youngest World Champion ever, a mark that would later be broken by Lewis Hamilton. He followed up his championship by winning again in 2006 in a duel with Schumacher that went down to the last two races.



2007 saw Alonso make the decision to go to McLaren Mercedes. He was paid roughly $40 million dollars a year and was under the impression he would be the number one driver. McLaren chose to bring in Lewis Hamilton as his teammate and it got ugly pretty quickly. Hamilton had been developed by McLaren. This led to a fight between the drivers as to who was the number one driver. The season devolved into a series of incidents and then things became much worse when it was discovered McLaren was using proprietary information from Ferrari when developing its car. It is rumored that Alonso leaked the information to the FIA, but this has never been nailed down. Regardless, McLaren was hit with a $100 million dollar fine. The team fell apart and the infighting between the two drivers ultimately led to Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari pipping them by one point for the drivers’ championship.
 
Following the season, Alonso quit McLaren and returned to Renault. The team had fallen on hard times. He regularly outpointed his teammate, but the car was simply not very good. His only win would come in the 2009 season as he won in Singapore. It was later discovered his teammate had intentionally crashed to help him. Alonso was not fingered in the scandal, but many assumed he was aware of what was going on.
 
2010 finally saw the pairing many had dreamed of. Alonso moved to Ferrari on a three year deal to replace the disappointing Kimi Raikkonen. Alonso at Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren seemed like a dream rivalry. Alas, it hasn’t really happened so far. The Red Bull team has been dominant. Still, one can expect things to heat up between the teams as they inevitably become more competitive.
 
Fernando Alonso has come a long way from his modest beginnings. He is a two time World Champion and the lead driver for Ferrari. Not bad for a boy from a small town in Spain.

<< Formula One Articles