Fernando Alonso: Earth to the Moon

With the weekend of the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso will have 400 races in his bag.

It might not seem like a big deal, but when you look at it from another perspective you'll realize that it's actually insane. More than 100,000 kilometers in races, more than 400,000 kilometers in total. This number roughly equals to the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Fernando Alonso Diaz debuted in Formula 1 with Minardi in 2001, but it was in 2003 that Alonso started to show what he was capable of.

Winning his first race in the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso climbed the driver standings slowly until 2005. Triumphing over the legendary Red Baron Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso took his first World Championship with Renault F1. This had a huge impact as Michael Schumacher seemed unstoppable at the time with his red Ferrari, however was stripped of his crown by a young Spaniard in a baby blue Renault. Fernando Alonso also won the championship in 2006, carving his name into Formula 1 history as the 'young Spaniard who beat The Schumacher, twice'.

In 2007, Fernando Alonso switched to McLaren after secret negotiations with the team.

With this move, Alonso found himself in a very political environment where British rookie Lewis Hamilton who was way faster than he thought, was favored over him by McLaren. Fernando Alonso didn't back down despite the fast rookie who was rivaling him in the championship and gave it everything. Hamilton and Alonso's in-team rivalry was so fierce that they could not see the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen coming to snatch the title from the McLarens, by one point.

After the relationship between McLaren and Alonso turned bitter, the sides mutually agreed on a contract termination and Alonso left the team for his second stint with Renault.

The second stint with Renault didn't go as Fernando planned.

The car lacked power for the first half of the season and Fernando needed a miracle to win a race. Speaking of miracles, why not make our own? Crashgate.

After a disappointing first half of the season, one of the most controversial events of Formula 1 happened. Renault ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash deliberately, causing a safety car and having Fernando Alonso pit. With the orchestrated safety car window, Fernando Alonso had an opportunity to win the race and he took it.

The Crashgate incident is still a hot topic in our day as it is regarded as the race that cost Felipe Massa his championship title, due to Ferrari's faulty pit-stop during the safety car which was not supposed to happen under normal circumstances.

This part might hurt the Tifosi and the Fernando Alonso fans, so beware.

After Fernando's second, rather eventful stint with Renault, he signed a contract with Ferrari. Alonso won five races in 2010 and entered the last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with an eight-point lead. However, it didn't matter for the Renault driver Vitaly Petrov, who defended against Alonso as if it was his last ever race and cost him the championship. Sebastian Vettel won the race while Alonso was only seventh, thus putting the German Red Bull driver into the lead and winning him the championship.

The 2012 season was also a rather heartbreaking one for Fernando Alonso. He built a 40-point lead against Sebastian Vettel, but it dissolved quickly due to mechanical failures and collisions out of Alonso's control. He entered the last race of the season, Brazil, 13 points behind Vettel. The race was a chaotic one. Early on in the race, Vettel spun and gave Alonso the provisional championship as nobody believed Vettel could win it at that point. But the German driver charged through positions and finished fourth against the Spaniard who finished eighth.

Vettel had triumphed again, and Alonso was devastated again.

It's been a hell of a ride already, but we're back to McLaren.

Fernando's second stint with McLaren was even more disappointing than the one with Renault. McLaren of the mid-late 2010s with the Honda power unit was a slow and unreliable one, and Alonso's sarcastic and passive-aggressive responses to his team on the radio due to his underperforming car quickly became a highlight of his career.

"The engine feels good, much slower than before! Amazing." — Fernando Alonso, to McLaren on the team radio, 2017 Spanish Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso left the sport at the end of the 2018 season with an emotional farewell by Alonso's former rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

But we are not done yet!

Fernando Alonso returned to Formula 1 with a shock move in 2021, signing with the Alpine F1 team, formerly known as Renault F1. This marked the start of a third stint with Renault, a.k.a Alpine, for Fernando Alonso.

The team did rather well and was competitive throughout the season, even winning a race and claiming podiums. Alonso's legendary defense against Hamilton in the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix helped Esteban Ocon, Fernando's teammate, win the chaotic race. Alonso also finished the Qatar Grand Prix in third place, getting Alonso his first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso extended his contract with Alpine for 2022.

Fernando Alonso joined Aston Martin on a multi-year contract deal starting in 2023.

He ditched Alpine F1, as they only offered him a single-year extension. Alonso's leave also saw the team spiral into contract drama as the team had announced they were signing the Alpine junior Oscar Piastri, who later on stated that he was not informed of this and was going to be driving for McLaren F1 in the 2023 season.

Alonso's stint with Aston Martin started strong with consistent podiums and Alonso finished the season fourth in the driver standings, his highest finish since the 2013 season.

Alonso is still driving for Aston Martin in 2024 and as I mentioned, his Mexico City Grand Prix start will mark his 400th race, making him the first driver ever to reach this number of races.

Fernando Alonso also does endurance racing and IndyCar racing. He took his first victory with 24 hours of LeMans in 2018. Alonso has a very extensive racing career and is one of the most multi-skilled racing driver in history.

I don't want to just be a good driver: I want to be a complete driver and hopefully the best driver in the world. — Fernando Alonso Diaz