No, we aren’t talking about his age, even though it feels like he has been around forever. We’re talking about the podium count for the legend that is Fernando Alonso.
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The mercurial Spaniard’s journey to 99 podiums began with his first season with Renault. After spending one year at Minardi in 2001 and then serving his dues as the Renault test driver in 2002, he was unleashed on the rest of the grid in 2003 and from just his second race it was clear to see that he would go down in history as one of the all-time greats.
After a rather ordinary showing at the season-opening race in Australia that year, the action headed to Malaysia where Alonso would announce himself to the world in spectacular fashion.
A brave call from the team led to Alonso leading teammate Jarno Trulli to a Renault 1-2 in qualifying which made the Spaniard the youngest ever polesitter at the time, at 21 years and 236 days, which has since been beaten only by Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.
The decision to run a lighter fuel load in qualifying ultimately denied Alonso the chance to take his first victory, being passed by both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa during each of his pitstops, but he did enough to hold on to claim his first-ever podium and become the youngest ever driver to stand on the podium at 21 years and 237 days. That record would be surpassed, but the feat at the time firmly asserted Alonso into the conversation regarding future world drivers’ champions.
Alonso picked up three more podiums that season, the last of which via his first victory, at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He then repeated his tally of four podiums in a season in 2004. That started with third at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and finished with back-to-back thirds in Germany and Hungary. But what was to follow was what truly propelled Alonso to ‘god’ status.
15 podiums in 2005 and 14 podiums in 2006, which included seven victories in each season. That earned Alonso back-to-back titles, which broke Michael Schumacher’s run of four consecutive titles (2001-2004), also earning him the honour of becoming the youngest ever world champion at the time, at 24 years and 59 days (which has since been beaten by Vettel and Lewis Hamilton).
Having notched up 37 podiums in four seasons with Renault, Alonso had every record in the sport at his mercy but his decision to ditch Renault for McLaren turned out to be the beginning of the end for further title-winning aspirations.
Despite picking up 12 podiums in 2007 the fractious relationship between him and Lewis Hamilton, and the team seeming to side with the Brit, resulted in the Spaniard returning to Renault where he would endure an extremely lean patch of just four more podiums in two seasons.
A move to Ferrari in 2010 seemed the lifeline Alonso’s career desperately needed but, despite notching up 44 podiums in 96 races for the Italian outfit, Alonso was not able to add to his two world titles in his five years at Maranello.
The worse period of his career was to follow with a disastrous spell with McLaren. Four years, 78 races and two engine manufacturers later and Alonso added zero podiums to his tally during his second stint with the British team.
At the end of the 2018 season after so many years of frustration and disappointment, Alonso seemingly walked away from the sport, retiring from Formula 1 with 97 podiums to his name and a legacy of unfulfilled destiny… that was until he returned to the grid in 2021 behind the wheel of Alpine.
Alpine was the latest incarnation of a team that enjoyed a successful history as Benetton, winning back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995 with Michael Schumacher and as Renault, where Alonso had earned them back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
Alonso’s return to the team that gave him the most success was not a happy one, earning just one podium in 44 races. Again, his relationship with his teammate and the team’s apparent siding with Esteban Ocon forced Alonso to look for greener pastures, and greener pastures he found.
When Vettel announced he would walk away from Formula 1 at the end of 2022 a door opened for Alonso to make the switch to Aston Martin. And what a switch it has already turned out to be.
After pre-season testing, Aston Martin emerged as the only threat to Red Bull’s dominance and at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso turned potential into performance, claiming only his second podium since 2015.
His third place in Sakhir was the 99th podium of his storied career and with the potential that the AMR23 has shown, he could well add podium 100 at the Saudi GP this weekend.
Having endured his fair share of frustration and misfortune Alonso has finally found a home that looks capable of matching his ambitions. If the boys and girls at the factory in Silverstone can keep developing the car, the Spaniard can look forward to not only a few more visits to the podium and maybe even race wins, but he could even be involved in a title race for the first time in 11 years.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Broadcast Details
FRI, 17 MAR
FP1 - 15:25
FP2 - 18:45
SAT, 18 MAR
FP3 - 15:15
Quali - 18:50
SUN, 19 MAR
RACE - 18:55