Alonso's transcendent talent shone from day one
Wednesday, 5 October 2022
The Spaniard's achievements could have easily matched Hamilton's.
Former Minardi team principal Paul Stoddart says Fernando Alonso's achievements could have easily matched the record-setting exploits of seven-time Formula 1® world champion Lewis Hamilton after the 41-year-old Spaniard set a new F1® benchmark for longevity at last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
Two-time world champion Alonso started his 350th Grand Prix last Sunday, breaking the record held by Kimi Raikkonen. Stoddart was Alonso's team boss at Minardi for his F1® debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, which doubled as Stoddart's first race in charge of the Italian team after purchasing it just six weeks before the start of the season.
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Speaking to the In the Fast Lane podcast, the Australian aviation businessman, who remains involved in the sport with his Minardi two-seater show car program, said Alonso's quality was obvious from day one.
"In my mind, he's a two-time world champion who could have ever-so easily been, at a different team at a different time … ahead of (Lewis) Hamilton. He's certainly got the talent," Stoddart told the Australian Grand Prix Corporation's official podcast.
"In Formula 3000 … I'd seen him win a wet race at Spa (in 2000), almost lapping half the field. I didn't think much of it until we'd bought Minardi, and Fernando was there (as test driver).
"I knew very quickly that we had a future world champion on our hands if he ever got into the right equipment. He got much more out of a dog of car than that car deserved. He could wring its neck and could get finishes where the car shouldn't have finished.
"He's always been the same Fernando – very technical, very hard-working, very knowledgeable – and he's one of those few drivers that come along from time to time that just have the feel for a car so perfectly that they can get half a second, one second, out of a car that shouldn't be putting in those times."
The 2022 season marks the 20-year anniversary of one of the most famous moments in the history of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, where Mark Webber took a shock fifth place in his debut Grand Prix for Stoddart's battling backmarker team, the two world championship points earned that day doubling Minardi's tally from the previous six seasons combined.
Stoddart says the result – and an impromptu visit to Albert Park's podium afterwards – was the undoubted high point of his five years at the helm of the team.
"Twenty years later, I still get emotional over it," Stoddart said.
"The funniest thing is that they couldn't play the national anthem … so they played what I call the expat Australia song, 'I Still Call Australia Home'. The champagne hid Mark's and my tears. You couldn't script it, couldn't write it. That's half the reason half of Australia still thinks we won the race, because they saw us up on the podium."
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