Alonso

Fernando Alonso Díaz was born on July 29, 1981, in Oviedo, Spain, a city in the northern region of Asturias. His father, José Luis Alonso, a mechanic who dabbled in karting, built a small go-kart for his daughter Lorena. When Fernando showed interest, the kart was passed to him; he was just three years old. By the age of seven, he was winning his first karting championship in Asturias. His early success demanded significant family sacrifice, with his parents working extra hours to fund his racing. This childhood, spent in the industrial heart of Asturias and on local karting tracks, forged the relentless, calculating driver who would eventually become a two-time world champion. He has a sister, Lorena, and his family’s support was instrumental in launching his career.

Before Alonso stepped into a Formula One cockpit, he had already built a résumé that demanded attention. He won the Spanish Junior Karting Championship in 1993 and 1994, followed by the European Junior Karting Championship in 1994. In 1996, at age 15, he took the World Karting Championship, a title that marked him as a prodigy. Moving to single-seaters, he dominated the Euro Open MoviStar by Nissan in 1999, winning six races and the title. The following season, he finished fourth in the International Formula 3000 championship with the Astromega team, scoring his maiden win at Spa-Francorchamps. That performance caught the eye of Flavio Briatore, then managing Renault’s driver program. Briatore signed him and, after a year as a test driver for the Benetton-Renault team, Alonso made his F1 debut in 2001 with the Minardi team. He was just 19 years old.

Alonso’s Formula 1 career began in 2001 with the backmarker Minardi team, but his trajectory was set by the two world championships he won with Renault in 2005 and 2006. At 24, he became the youngest champion in the sport’s history at the time, breaking Michael Schumacher’s run of dominance. A fraught single season at McLaren in 2007 yielded a third-place finish in the standings, followed by a return to Renault and then a celebrated stint at Ferrari from 2010 to 2014. With the Scuderia, Alonso finished as vice-champion three times (2010, 2012, 2013), each season decided by narrow margins. After a second spell at McLaren and a brief period with Alpine, he joined Aston Martin in 2023. Across 23 seasons and 432 starts, he accumulated 32 wins, 106 podiums, 23 poles, and 25 fastest laps. His career, stretching from 2001 to 2026, is one of the longest and most statistically rich in the sport, defined not only by his two titles but by a relentless competitiveness that kept him fighting at the front long after his championship years.

The 2005 and 2006 seasons with Renault represent the statistical and competitive peak of Alonso’s Formula One career. In 2005, at 24 years old, he became the youngest World Drivers’ Champion at the time, winning seven Grands Prix and ending Michael Schumacher’s five-year title reign. He followed it with a second consecutive championship in 2006, taking seven more victories and holding off a resurgent Schumacher and Ferrari in a season-long battle that went down to the final round in Brazil. Across those two title-winning seasons, Alonso scored 14 of his 32 career wins and 24 of his 106 podiums, while driving for the Enstone-based team that had given him his debut. He also secured the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports in 2005. No other two-season stretch in his career produced a championship, and his subsequent years at McLaren, Ferrari, and later teams yielded three runner-up finishes but no further titles.

Fernando Alonso was married to Raquel del Rosario, the lead singer of the Spanish pop band El Sueño de Morfeo, from November 2006 to December 2011. He was later engaged to Spanish television presenter Lara Álvarez from 2015 to 2016, and dated Italian model Linda Morselli from 2016 to 2021. His current partner, journalist Melissa Jiménez, who covers Formula 1 for DAZN, gave birth to his first child in March 2026. Beyond his personal relationships, Alonso is a noted supporter of Real Madrid and Real Oviedo football clubs and is a cycling enthusiast. He speaks English, French, and Italian in addition to his native Spanish. His personal car collection includes a McLaren P1, Ferrari 458 Italia, Nissan GT-R, and Honda NSX. Throughout his career, he has been trained by Fabrizio Borra and Edoardo Bendinelli.

In a sport that measures greatness by championships alone, Fernando Alonso’s legacy is an argument against simplicity. Two titles—2005 and 2006 with Renault—are the numerical anchor, but they undersell a career that redefined what a driver could achieve beyond Formula 1. Alonso is the only driver ever to win both the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship and the World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, a feat that required winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice (2018, 2019) and the 24 Hours of Daytona (2019). He is the first and only driver to hold victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans, and Daytona. His 32 Grands Prix wins, 106 podiums, and 23 poles across six different teams—Minardi, Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Alpine, and Aston Martin—span 23 seasons, a longevity matched by few. In 2005 he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, and in 2017 he was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame, re-entering in 2019 as the WEC champion, the first driver to appear twice. His influence is felt in every driver who now chases the Triple Crown, a path he reopened.