Fernando Alonso

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

He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and Minardi.

Alonso was born on 29 July 1981 to a working-class family in Oviedo, Asturias, Northern Spain.

He is the son of the mine shaft explosives factory mechanic and amateur kart driver José Luis Alonso, and his wife, the department store employee Ana Díaz.

Alonso has an elder sister, Lorena, who is a doctor.

He was educated at the Holy Guardian Angel Primary School (Spanish: Santo Ángel de la Guarda) in Oviedo from 1985 to 1995 under the Basic Education System (Spanish: Educación General Básica).

He won the 1988 and 1989 children's junior Championship of the Asturias and Galicia, and progressed to the Cadet class in 1990.

Go-kart importer Genís Marcó was impressed by Alonso and mentored him; kart track owner José Luis Echevarria told him about Alonso.

He progressed to car racing at the age of 17, winning the Euro Open by Nissan in 1999 and was fourth in the International Formula 3000 Championship of 2000.

He debuted in Formula One with Minardi in before joining Renault as a test driver for.

Alonso attended the Institute Leopoldo Alas Clarín of San Lazaro (Spanish: Instituto Leopoldo Alas Clarín de San Lázaro) until his career in motor racing caused him to leave during his Curso de Orientación Universitaria (English: University Orientation Course) in 2000.

He was granted a permit to study away from school, after he disobeyed his mother's orders and seldom attended classes.

He achieved a good academic performance by asking his classmates for notes and was unproblematic.

Alonso's father wanted a hobby to share with his children and built a go-kart for Lorena.

She was uninterested in karting and a three-year-old Alonso received the kart.

The karts' pedals were modified for drive-ability, and the local racing federation granted him a mandatory kart racing license aged five; his father rejected an offer for his son to be a goalkeeper for the RC Celta de Vigo football club.

The family lacked the finances required to develop him in karts; they could not purchase rain tyres and forced Alonso to adapt to a wet track on slick tyres.

Alonso devised three timing sectors going to school to improve himself daily.

His mother sewed his racing overalls and adjusted them as he grew; she also ensured Alonso was academically well off.

His father steered the kart early on and was his accountant, counsellor, manager and mechanic.

Aged seven, Alonso won his first kart race in Pola de Laviana.

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 been awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, the Premios Nacionales del Deporte Sportsman of the Year Award and the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit and has twice been inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame.

Alonso runs an esports and junior racing team and is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Promoted to a race seat in, Alonso won two drivers' championships in 2005 and 2006, becoming the youngest pole-sitter, youngest race winner, youngest world champion, and youngest two-time champion in the sport's history at the time.

After finishing just one point behind eventual champion Kimi Räikkönen with McLaren in, he returned to Renault for and and won two races in the former year for fifth overall.

Alonso drove for Ferrari from to, finishing runner-up to Sebastian Vettel in 2010, , and with the title battles in 2010 and 2012 going down to the last race of the season.

A second stint with McLaren (this time with Honda engines) from to resulted in no further success.

After a two-year sabbatical, Alonso returned to Formula One in 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 moved to Aston Martin for the 2023 season, where he saw great success at the beginning of the season, with six podium finishes in the first eight races.

At the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Alonso scored his 100th podium by finishing third, becoming one of six drivers in the series' history to achieve that feat.

Alonso has won Grands Prix, earned pole positions, and scored points from starts.

He is currently the only Spanish Formula One driver to have won the World Championship.

Until Carlos Sainz's maiden win at the 2022 British Grand Prix, Alonso was the only Spaniard to win a Formula One Grand Prix.

With Toyota, Alonso won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in and, and the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2018–19.

He also won the 24 Hours of Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing in 2019.

As of 2024, Alonso is the only driver to win both the F1 World Drivers' Championship and the World Endurance Championship, even if the World Sportscar Championship is included in WEC.

Born in Oviedo, Asturias to a working-class family, Alonso began kart racing at the age of three and achieved success in local, national, and world championships.