The best driver in Formula 1 is not the current
champion, who in the past four years has won
three titles.
It’s not Sebastian Vettel, who won four
in a row before Lewis took his crown.
It’s not Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen.
No.The best driver in world hasn’t stood
on the podium since 2014, and hasn’t won
a Championship in over ten years.
Who is he?
“He’s a hell of a driver” “I mean
he beat Michael Schumacher” “I think Fernando
is the greatest driver of this century”
If you looked at the drivers standings for
the past three seasons, there wouldn’t be
any reason for you to think that Fernando
Alonso was that talented.
Last year, Alonso had almost more DNFs than
actual finishes, and only cracked the top
ten five times.
“Suspension failure, uh stopped us to take
this point, but uh you know..it is what it
is.”
“Room for positivity then?”
“No, not many.”
His results reflect that of a rookie, not
one of the greatest of all time.
So what’s the deal?
To find out we have to look a this career
from the beginning.
Fernando Alonso’s been driving since he
was only three years old.
His dad built a go kart for Alonso’s older
sister, she didn’t really like it.
But Fernando loved it.
He started racing at five years old , and
was winning right away.
There was just something about him, the kid
could drive.
To win, being capable of operating the car
isn’t enough.
The factor that separates good drivers from
the true greats is intuition.
The split second reactions, the small adjustments
that happen too fast to think about.
It’s a subconscious link that borders on
instinct.
From the beginning it was clear that Fernando
possessed this gift.
After winning seven Spanish karting titles,
Fernando and his dad decided to enter the
European circuit.
His first season out he took second place.
he was scouted by former F1 driver Adrian
Campos to drive on his Formula Nissan team.
In Fernando’s second race in the new car,
he built a 42 second lead, so they told him
to slow down.
He was quoted as saying “I’m wearing my
brake pads out, I can’t go any slower”.
Over the 1999 season, Fernando earned six
wins, making him the Formula Nissan champion.
The next year, Fernando was recruited by the
Renault Formula 1 team, who loaned him off
to Minardi as a test driver.
At the time Minardi was a back marker team,
meaning their car wasn’t that good, they
just didn’t have the money to compete at
a high level.
But that made it a prime spot for Alonso to
build up his skills in a Formula 1 car.
In 2003 Renault saw the aura of potential
surrounding Alonso and brought him back to
their team.
In his second race for the team in Malaysia,
He achieved pole position at qualifying.
At 21 years old, this made him the youngest
top qualifier in the history of Formula 1,
a record that would stand for five more years.
He finished the race in third and would follow
that up with another third place finish the
next race in Brazil.
People started paying attention to the 21
year old Spaniard.
Fernando scored another Pole position that
year in Hungary.
After the race start he built up a staggering
15 second lead on the field in just 9 laps.
In a sport where tenths of seconds are a lifetime,
15 seconds is an eternity.
After 70 laps Fernando was able to keep that
margin, lapping Formula 1 god Michael Schumacher
in the process.
Alonso crossed the finish line and took the
record for youngest F1 winner ever, another
record that wouldn’t be broken for 5 years.
"Youngest man ever to win a Grand Prix"
"He's got it all, this kid"
It’d be easy give the credit for Alonso’s
rookie success to his car, but in 2003 that
wasn’t the case.
Hungary was Renault’s only win and it came
late in the season.
Not only was Fernando out-driving his car,
but his teammate as well.
Of the seven races that both Renault drivers
finished, Fernando had beat his Jarno Trulli
five times.
It was clear Alonso was on the path to greatness
and the 2005 season was proof.
Fernando’s performance in previous seasons
poised He and Renault for a shot at the world
title that year.
But it wouldn’t be an east Road.
Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari were ready
to take their sixth consecutive championship,
and Mclaren-Mercedes Driver Kimi Raikkonen
would have his best season yet.
But Fernando put his head down and did what
he always did: Drive.
In spite of Alonso clenching three wins and
two more podiums in the first five races,
people still thought the Mclarens had a better
chance at the Championship because it was
faster than Alonso’s Renault.
So Fernando had to show people once again
that he was the best.
Alonso and Raikkonen traded the top spot on
the podium throughout the season.
By the end of 2005, both drivers had seven
victories.
But of the 19 races, Alonso missed the podium
only three times.
This made Fernando the youngest F1 champion
ever at the time, at 24 years old.
(FESTIVE MUSIC)
When I was 24 I was eating Little Caesars
and drinking Carlo Rossi alone in my apartment.
(SIGHS)
Michael Schumacher was incensed at the loss
of his crown, and returned the next season
for a final ride with Ferrari before leaving
F1 for 3 years.
What followed was an epic battle between the
GOAT and the new King.
Alonso and Schumacher went back and forth
for victories, leaving only four races where
neither of them won.
I could probably be a whole episode on the
2006 season; there was cheating allegations,
strange rule calls by the FIA, and straight
up heart-pounding races.
But in the end, Alonso won the championship again,
asserting that his skill wasn’t just a fluke,
he was the real deal.
He was the man that beat Michael Schumacher.
Fernando went to former rival Mclaren the
next year, teaming up with rookie driver Lewis
Hamilton.
Almost immediately, Alonso knew he had to
work harder than ever to beat his new teammate.
Like Alonso, Lewis grew up karting from an
extremely young age, and worked up the ranks
just like Alonso did, but earned a spot on
a top team for his first drive.
Hamilton was a phenom just like Alonso.
At the time McLaren thought this was a brilliant
idea; the seasoned world champ and the rookie
savant.
But all that would come from the pairing was
chaos.
Hamilton was proving himself to be a worthy
opponent to Alonso leading up to the Hungarian
Grand Prix.
Lewis had two more podiums than Fernando,
but Alonso had one more win.
While McLaren was aiming to beat Ferrari,
their drivers were focused on beating each
other.
“The two teammates!
You could put a cigarette paper between the
wheels!”
Their rapidly escalating rivalry came to a
head at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix.
During qualifying, Lewis posted a faster lap
than Alonso.
But to ensure a clear track in front of Fernando
for a hot lap, McLaren ordered Hamilton to
let 'Nando by.
Hamilton claimed that if he slowed down, Kimi
Raikkonen would pass and ruin both the McLaren
driver’s chances, so he didn’t let Alonso
by, disobeying team orders.
Understandably, Fernando was livid.
McLaren called both cars back to the pit for
a set of fresh tires for the final Qualifying
lap.
The team would stack both cars in the pit,
with Hamilton right behind Alonso.
McLaren would hold Fernando for twenty seconds
after the tire change, timing it so both drivers
would have a clear track ahead of them, and
just enough time to complete a hot lap.
Fernando pulled into the pit as expected and
got the tires.
But after he got the go-ahead to leave, he
sat there and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“Yep they want him out of there.
No Alonso’s not getting on with it!
Only a minute and forty to go.
Is, is he blocking Hamilton here?
Is that a bit of a tactic within the team
there to give Hamilton a bit of a headache?
Now, Hamilton doesn’t have enough time to
re-enter and do a hot lap of his own.
“Checkered flag and Hamilton’s missed
it!
Hamilton’s missed it by four seconds so
he’s not gonna get a lap in!
Alonso just made it through, and there will
be some serious talk.”
“We always stop, we wait for the countdown
in the radio and we go.
But I think the calculation was wrong because
my teammate didn’t complete the lap.
This thing unfortunately happened today to
us.”
To put it lightly this soured the relationship
between Alonso and his own team, and turned
his rivalry with Hamilton into a completely
toxic relationship.
Lewis ended up winning that day and tying
Fernando for points at the end of the season,
with Kimi Raikkonen winning the championship
by a single point.
Alonso left McLaren when the season ended,
after enduring justifiable scorn from the
British press.
In his own words Alonso felt McLaren was biased
towards Hamilton: “ I have a British team
mate with a British team, and he’s doing
a great job and we know that all the support
and help is going to him and I understood
that from the beginning.”
I won’t defend Alonso’s actions in Hungary,
and I don’t completely buy that McLaren
was biased in Hamilton’s favor.
but I will say that Alonso’s departure from
the team after the season ended shouldn’t
be surprising to anybody.
After a brief and unsatisfying return to Renault,
Alonso landed the dream job of driving for
Ferrari in 2010.
Alonso finished second overall in the Championship,
once again out performing his teammate Felipe
Massa.
Fernando stayed with the team until between
2010 and 2014, earning three second place
finishes in the championship in five seasons.
And finishing better than his teammates every
time.
Alonso’s Ferrari era is the best demonstration
of him “out driving” his car.
By 2014, Ferrari was having a very hard time
keeping up with Mercedes and Redbull, finishing
fourth in the constructor’s championship.
The car just wasn’t good.
Alonso’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen managed
to finish twelfth in the Driver’s championship.
But Alonso finished sixth, with a “slow”
Ferrari.
Alonso returned to McLaren in 2015, and there
were problems pretty much immediately.
Not with the team or his teammate Jenson Button,
but his car.
Honda returned to Formula 1 after a 7 year
absence and supplied engines for the McLaren
team.
There’s no easy way to say it but these
engines sucked.
The team was plagued with reliability issues
for three whole years, and not once did a
Mclaren driver step onto the podium.
Fernando did the best he could to out-drive
his equipment, But on the straights, he would
lose any gains he made.
The Honda era made Mclaren and Alonso a joke
in some people’s eyes.
But I believe in the fire burning inside Fernando
Alonso.
Not once during the disastrous Honda years
did he ever blame his team.
“we are frustrated and disappointed but
uh, you know it’s the time to learn and
to work together and to hopefully improve
the situation soon.”
He did the best with what he was given, even
if it was the worst.
And some other Champions can’t really say
that.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the two
most recent champions in Formula 1, got to
hop right onto a top team when their car was
at the height of it’s dominance.
And I’m not saying they aren’t great drivers,
cuz that’d be stupid.
Vettel is one of my favorites and Lewis is
on track to be the most successful driver
of all time.
They truly are great drivers
All I’m saying is, you put Alonso in an
identical car, My money’s on him.
Things are looking up for Fernando.
Mclaren made the switch from Honda to a Renault
engine for this upcoming 2018 season.
Yeah, it had some problems at testing but Alonso
managed the second fastest lap time behind
Kimi Raikkonen.
That’s enough for me to believe in Fernando
Alonso.
Do ya Brits hate me?
If you think I’m wrong, go write a comment,
light me up.
Go like the show page on FaceBook that way
you never miss an episode of WheelHouse.
If you like F1 you might like racing sims
so check out this episode of The Bestest.
So will Fernando make his return?
We’ll find out, the F1 season starts this
weekend, I’m super stoked!
Thanks for watchin’, bye! :)
