53. Fernando Alonso

Age 41
Occupation Driver, Aston Martin F1 Team
Nationality Spanish
Position Last Year 53

Fernando Alonso Díaz (born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver competing for Aston Martin in Formula One.

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He won the series’ World Drivers’ Championship in 2005 and 2006 with Renault and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and Minardi. With Toyota, Alonso won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 2018 and 2019, and the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2018–19. He also won the 24 Hours of Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing in 2019.

Born in Oviedo, Asturias, to a working-class family, Alonso began kart racing at three and succeeded in local, national, and World championships. He progressed to car racing at 17, winning the Euro Open by Nissan in 1999 and was fourth in the International Formula 3000 Championship of 2000.

In 2001, Minardi was his first team in Formula One. In 2002, he joined Renault as a test driver. Promoted to a race seat in 2003, Alonso won two driver’s championships in 2005 and 2006, becoming the youngest pole-sitter, race winner, world champion, and two-time champion in the sport’s history. After coming in second to eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen with McLaren in 2007, he returned to Renault for 2008 and 2009. In 2008, he won two races and finished fifth overall; in 2009, he won one and finished fifth overall.

Alonso drove for Ferrari from 2010 to 2014, finishing runner-up to Sebastian Vettel in 2010, 2012, and 2013 with the title battles in 2010 and 2012 going down to the season’s last race. A second stint with McLaren from 2015 to 2018 resulted in no further success. After a two-year sabbatical, Alonso returned to Formula One in 2021 with Alpine. At the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, Alonso scored his first podium in seven years. At the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, he broke the record for most starts in Formula One.

Alonso commented on the podium finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix:

“When you are P3 in race one, there are 22 opportunities this season. Even last year, I remember in Canada, wet qualifying, we were in the first row of the grid. I have the same feeling from testing, like, it’s too good to be true. You’re always expecting that something you will get a step back, and you will get back to reality.

Anything can happen in 22 races with different conditions. I will try my best to have the opportunity.”

Alonso won the 2001 Race of Champions Nations Cup with the rally driver Jesús Puras and the motorcyclist Rubén Xaus for Team Spain and thrice entered the Indianapolis 500 in 2017, 2019 and 2020. He has won the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, the Premios Nacionales del Deporte Sportsman of the Year Award, and the Royal Order of Sports Merit Gold Medal. He has twice been inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame. Alonso runs an esports and junior racing team and is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

From November 2006 to December 2011, Alonso was married to Raquel del Rosario, the lead singer of the Spanish pop band El Sueño de Morfeo. Since 2022, Alonso has been in a relationship with Austrian television presenter Andrea Schlager. Alonso supports the Real Madrid and Real Oviedo football teams and is a cycling enthusiast. He is 174 cm (5’9″) tall and speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish.

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