Fernando Alonso: 20 years a World Champion

Soon to be 44, he’s raring to go yet again, defying the sands of time and the naysayers who reckon he’s past it to press on in the belief he can add to his 32 Grand Prix wins. The last was achieved 12 years ago, for Ferrari at his home Spanish Grand Prix in May 2013.

Now there’s another landmark: it’s 20 years since he became World Champion for the first time. This is unchartered territory in Formula 1, to remain at the peak across three decades. Imagine Jim Clark still racing in 1985, or Niki Lauda in ’95, or Alain Prost taking on Alonso in that first title-winning year of 2005.

Haas rookie Ollie Bearman had only just been born when Alonso became a World Champion. If Bearman’s career lasts as long he’ll still be racing in 2049… No wonder if the new generation have a different perception of the man to those of us old enough to remember Fernando at the same stage of life.

How Alonso arrived fully formed

I first came across Alonso at Donington Park in 1999, when he comfortably won both races of a double-header for the single-make Euro Open by Nissan series. He was in a different league that weekend.

A year later, my regular beat was Formula 3000 (now Formula 2) and Alonso pitched up at Belgian-owned Team Astromega. He didn’t speak much English, so communication was limited. The language barrier perhaps inevitably meant he came across as a little shy and reserved, but British team manager Sam Boyle raved about him all year. Hard results proved tough to come by, but in the final two rounds Alonso hit his stride: second in Hungary and his only F3000 win at the Spa finale.

He graduated to the back of the F1 grid the following year, with Minardi. I recall sitting down with him at the second race in Brazil. His English was by now much better, he remained polite but a little distant – self-contained, perhaps. The confidence was already there. Alonso had an aura about him, as if he knew what he had in him.

Already managed by Flavio Briatore, with whom he remains close today, the 19-year-old had already tested for Renault (still running in its Benetton guise) and stepped back from racing in 2002 to serve as the manufacturers’ reserve driver, then replaced a BAR-bound Jenson Button for 2003. By Hungary – just his 30^th F1 start but 13^th in a competitive car – he was F1’s then youngest-ever winner, at 22. Now the whole world knew what Sam Boyle had been telling us: Alonso was the real deal.

Right place, right time

The timing of his arrival at Renault couldn’t have been better. The team that had won twin World Championships as Benetton with Michael Schumacher in 1994-95 was back on the up now Renault had taken over. The French car giant had a mission to finish what it started in the late 1970s, then failed to deliver in the 1980s: win on its own terms.

Victories, championships and dominance as an engine supplier to Williams and Benetton in the 1990s was one thing, but to achieve such feats exclusively under its own colours would supersede anything from the past.

Bob Bell had been recruited during the latter Benetton years, left for a brief stint at Jordan, then returned to Renault as Alonso began to shine. He was technical director through the ‘glory years’ of 2005-06. “It was the same team as it had been in the 1990s in respect of attitude, work environment, ethos and spirit,” he once told me. “All those things that I value highly were the same and most of the same people were there. But Renault did fund it properly and I think that the level of funding during those golden years was top of the heap.

“We didn’t really want for anything in financial terms. We at the Enstone factory were much more closely integrated with Viry-Châtillon” – Renault’s fabled engine plant near Paris now out of favour with the current Alpine team, which will use customer Mercedes power from next year – “and Flavio was the MD of both companies. He made sure they worked sensibly together, was very influential over what happened at Viry and over what direction it took."

It all just gelled. Aside from Ferrari, it was the first properly integrated approach between chassis and engine manufacturer, with one group effectively doing the job, and it bore great fruit.”

The Renault of 2005-06 is the prime case study of a car maker getting F1 right. A shame the same company hasn’t taken a leaf from its own book today.

2005: new rules change the story

Bar Jarno Trulli’s win at Monaco, 2004 was an underwhelming season for Renault. But in the R25 the team was primed for a title pitch. What helped was a crucial change in sporting regulations for what turned out to be a one-off experiment.

Schumacher and Ferrari had completed a five-year red-wash of titles with a devastatingly dominant 2004 campaign. Now suddenly the German was on the backfoot, undone by a new regulation that ruled out strategic tyre changes. Only fuel could be taken on at the stops. Unless they faced the force majeure of a puncture, drivers now had to complete the race on the same set of tyres they had started.

Bridgestone, so long a key ally in the Ferrari run of success, was lost compared to its arch rival, Michelin. Already on an upward curve, both Renault and McLaren found an open door to chase the World Championships.

How the title was won

A fast start was the key to Renault’s success. But hang on, the other one took the opener… Briefly we wondered whether Giancarlo Fisichella was ready to spring a major surprise when he won in style at the Australian Grand Prix. But no. As Ferrari faced up to its crisis, Alonso – third at Albert Park – got on a roll, winning in Malaysia, Bahrain and Imola, where Schumacher briefly revived.

From 13^th on the grid, the Champion charged and chased Alonso to a thrilling finish. Imola has never been easy for overtaking, especially since the Tamburello and Villeneuve esses were added. Alonso’s calmness under pressure meant he couldn’t be bullied. His victory ensured Renault had won the opening four races.

But Adrian Newey’s McLaren-Mercedes MP4/20 was probably the fastest car across the season, and now Kimi Räikkönen hit his stride. The Finn won in Spain and Monaco to move up the order, 22 points down on Alonso at this stage. He looked all set for a hat-trick at the Nürburgring too, only to suffer the consequences of the no tyre stops rule.

Having lived with a flat-spotted Michelin vibration for 25 laps, his McLaren’s suspension collapsed, handing a crucial victory to Alonso. But Fernando then crashed out in Montréal under pressure from the other McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya – his only significant mistake of the season, and Räikkönen picked up the win.

Then came Indianapolis and one of the most shameful episodes in F1 history. Doubts over the safety of Michelin’s tyres on the speedway’s Turn 13 banking left just the six Bridgestone runners on the grid, as Schumacher headed team-mate Rubens Barrichello to a managed and inglorious ‘win’ – the lone success of Ferrari’s miserable season.

From there, Alonso won at Magny-Cours, then Montoya finally came good at Silverstone. But the Woking team was embarrassed by a hydraulics failure at Hockenheim which robbed Räikkönen of a win. Subsequent victories at the Hungaroring and in Istanbul added to the body of evidence that without such problems, the Finn would have at least pushed Alonso much closer.

As it was, Alonso finished second to Montoya at Monza, then again to Räikkönen at Spa – and third behind the McLaren duo at Interlagos proved enough to secure him the crown.

The great back-to-front Grand Prix at Suzuka, when Alonso and Räikkönen both started in lowly grid slots because of a wet qualifying, was actually a dead rubber in terms of the Drivers’ Championship. Räikkönen’s pass on Fischella for victory into Turn 1 on the last lap was brilliant, Alonso’s on Schumacher through the fearsome 130R left-hander even more so.

Alonso then finished the season with a flourish, winning in Shanghai to secure Renault the Constructors’ Title, too. “We are the champions!” he ‘sang’ (we use the word loosely) on the wind-down lap. The score between the champ and Räikkönen read seven wins each at the end of a largely refreshing year that ended the Ferrari monotony.

The curious case of Fernando Alonso

The title defence in 2006 was even better. Ferrari, Schumacher and Bridgestone bounced back as tyre changes returned and 2.4-litre V8s replaced the banshee V10s. Alonso fully earned his second crown, but had already announced his move for 2007 to McLaren before the campaign began. It didn’t deflect his effort or his concentration.

If you’d predicted at the end of that year Alonso would never win another title, most would have scoffed. Then again, no one would have predicted he’d still be an irrepressible force two decades later. It’s been a strange career. 

But, while there have been near-misses and acrimony since those heady days in blue and yellow – not to mention a couple of Le Mans wins with Toyota – it’s all contributed to an incontrovertible truth. ‘Only’ two titles? Doesn’t matter. Fernando Alonso is still safe among the greats.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.