Fernando Alonso Diaz was born in 29 of July, 1981. He is Spanish Formula One driver and two time world champion in 2005 and 2006. When he won his first championship in 2005, at the age of 24 and 58 days he became the youngest Formula One champion breaking Emerson Fittipaldi's record. In 2006 he became the youngest double champion. In 2007 he also became the second Formula One driver after Michael Schumacher to score more than 100 points in three consecutive seasons. His nickname is El Nano.
As a child Alonso competed in karting all around Spain supported by his father who also doubled as his mechanic. Alonso's victories attracted sponsorship and the required funds for him to develop his career in motorsport. Alonso won four Spanish championship in the junior category between 1993 and 1996 and won the Junior World Cup I 1996. He won the Spanish and Italian Inter-A titles in 1997 . In 1998 he won the Spanish Inter-A title again and finished second in the European championship.
Adrian Campos decided to test Alonso giving him a Minardi in 1998. After three days of testing Alonso matched the lap times of Campos' previous driver Marc Gene. Campos signed Alonso in 1999 to race in the Spanish Euro Open Movistar by Nissan. Alonso won the championship that year by one point from championship rival Manuel Giao. That year Alonso also tested for Minardi Formula One, lapping 1,5 seconds faster than other test drivers. The next year Alonso was promoted to Formula 3000. He ended his season in fourth place behind Bruno Junqueira, Nicolas Minassian and Mark Webber.
Alonso made his debut in Formula One in the 2001 Australian Grand Prix with the Minardi team. He was the third youngest driver ever to start a Formula One race. The car was not fast and wasn't reliable either. However Alonso managed to distinguish himself by outqualifying teammate Tarso Marques by 2,6 seconds in only his first race. After that in Imola he outqualified both of the Benettons and repeated this feat later in the season.
Flavio Briatore who was his manager wanted to promote him in Benetton. Briatore also considered to make him a race driver in Jenson Button's place but instead he chose to take Alonso as a full time test driver in 2002. In the final race of the 2001 season in Suzuka, Alonso finished eleventh, far behind the points but in front of Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Prost, Olivier Panis' BAR-Honda, the two Arrows and his new teammate Alex Yoong. Four years later his former team boss from the Minardi days Paul Stoddart described his race as “53 laps of qualifying”.
Renault took over Benetton and Alonso became a test driver for Renault in 2002, making 1642 laps of testing that year. In 2003 he became a race driver in the place of Jenson Button, alongside Jarno Trulli. Alonso became the youngest to achieve a Formula One pole position in the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix. He finished second in his home Grand Prix a few races later, and became the youngest Formula One driver ever to win a Grand Prix when he took his first victory in the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. He finished the championship in sixth place that year, with four podium finishes.
In 2004 Jarno Trulli dropped Flavio Briatore as his manager. His relationship with the team deteriorated and Trulli left to join Toyota in 2005. Alonso finished fourth in the championship scoring four more podiums that year. In 2005 season Giancarlo Fisichella join Fernando Alonso as a teammate in Renault. Alonso started the season with a third place in the Australian Grand Prix. He also won the next two races in Bahrain and Malaysia. In San Marino after giving a fantastic battle for 13 laps with Michael Schumacher, Alonso managed to keep Schumacher behind him and took another victory there.
In the United states Grand Prix all the Michelin runners withdrew from the race due to safety concerns about their tyres. Alonso sealed the title when he finished third in Brazil, and became the youngest world champion in the history of Formula One at the age of 24 years and 59 days old, breaking Emerson Fittipaldi's record. After that he stated, “I just want to dedicate this championship to my family, and all my close friends who have supported me through my career. Spain is not a country with an F1 culture, and we had to fight alone, every step of the way, to make this happen. A huge thank-you should also go to the team as well, they are the best in Formula One, and we have done this together. It will say that I am world champion, but we are all champions and they deserve this Renault also won the constructors' championship that year and Alonso was awarded with the sports Prince of Asturias Award.
In 2006 the Alonso started the season with a victory in Bahrain, overtaking Michael Schumacher after coming out of the pit lane with 18 laps to go. He also got a victory in the Australian Grand Prix, after bypassing leader Jenson Button. In San Marino Alonso gave a battle again with Michael Schumacher, like in 2005 but this time Alonso was behind Schumacher and Schumacher successfully defended his place, as Alonso had done in 2005. Alonso became the first Spaniard to win his home Grand Prix in May 14, 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso took the pole position in Monaco after Michael Schumacher was penalised after he stopped his car in the circuit in the last minutes of the qualifying session not allowing the other drivers to finish their laps. Alonso included the opportunity of recording a fastest qualifying lap. Alonso won that race.
In Japan the two Ferrari's of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa qualified first and second as the Renault's was fifth and sixth. But a great race gave Alonso the victory after Schumacher's engine fail. Alonso got to the final race needing only one point to retain the title, in Brazil. A second place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix made him a champion again and he became the youngest double Formula One world champion. Renault also won the constructors championship that year by 5 points from Ferrari.
On December 19, 2005 Alonso announced that he was leaving Renault for McLaren, for the 2007 season. His contract with Renault was expiring on 31 of December. However Renault let Alonso to make a test with the McLaren in 15 of December. Alonso joined McLaren for the 2007 season having Lewis Hamilton by his side as a teammate. On 8 April Alonso took his first victory with McLaren in his second race with the team. In the Hungarian Grand Prix Alonso won under heavy rain bypassing Massa just four laps before the end. After that race due to an incident in the qualifying session between Alonso and Hamilton their relationship became bad. It has been reported that they were no more on speaking terms at the time.
McLaren was accused for using Ferrari's technical secrets. At first McLaren was not punished due to lack of evidence. However new evidence were found and an appeal was made in which McLaren was found guilty. Most of the new evidence were e-mail's from Pedro De La Rosa (McLaren's test driver), and Fernando Alonso. FIA offered both drivers spared sanctions in exchange for providing evidence. The relationships between the team and Alonso were deteriorated after that. There were rumours that wanted Alonso leaving McLaren at the end of the season. The championship got to the final race in Brazil were Lewis Hamilton entered the race being first in the championship, Alonso second, three points behind and Kimi Raikkonen in third place seven points behind Hamilton. During the race Lewis Hamilton had a gearbox failure and fell to 18th position. He managed to gt in 7th position and finish the race in that position. Kimi Raikkonen won the race with Alonso being third and losing the championship just for one point. Raikkonen finished with 110 championship points and Hamilton and Alonso were in second and third place with 109 championship points.
Up to now Fernando Alonso has won two world championships (in 2005 and 2006). He competed in 105 races and won 19 of them. He has 17 pole positions, 49 podium finishes and has gathered 490 championship points. He also made 11 fastest laps.
