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Fernando Alonso
- Team Aston Martin
- Nation Spain
- Date of birth 29/07/1981
- Place of birth Oviedo, Spain
- Debut Australia, 2001 (Minardi)
Fernando Alonso was in Formula 1® before Oscar Piastri was born … which made the sight of the pair swapping helmets in Brazil last year a story that both warmed the heart, and defied logic.
Other than Max Verstappen, you could argue that Alonso, at 42, was the standout driver of 2023. No, he didn’t win a race – victory number 32 in Spain 2013 feels like an eternity ago – but the Spaniard was electrifying in the early stages, and ended the season with a cunning pass of Sergio Perez at Interlagos that was part-genius, part-mischievous.
Alonso almost single-handedly dragged Aston Martin into the mix at the sharp end of the grid last year, and while the team was eventually out-developed by Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, that slippage down the order had nothing to do with a driver that, 18 years since he won his second world title, has lost little.
