Alonso opens up about youth: 'In that, I was the only one in my family'

Fernando Alonso is the most experienced Formula 1 driver ever, with other drivers having more races under their belt. Alonso is now 42 years old, but the Spaniard still has that competitive spirit is still in him. In the High Performance podcast, Alonso talks about his youth and how he was picked up as a talented driver.

Alonso was alone in his family

"I spoke a lot of times with my family in general because they are not at all competitive. So I don’t know how I can be that competitive in everything I do," Alonso began. The Spaniard even wanted to win all the games at home. "They still remember when we were playing games at home or cards or anything at home, I was so competitive, and I was so upset with them. I could maybe not talk to them for a full day if I was not winning all these kinds of things. They never understood why I was like that because no one in the family had this approach."

How was Alonso picked up as a talent?

It is common knowledge that Alonso does not come from a wealthy family, which often makes it difficult for young drivers to reach higher racing classes, in the end, fortunately for Alonso, this was not a problem. "I won the Spanish championship in ’94, and then one Italian mechanic saw me there in the Spanish championship and said: ‘You have to come to Italy and race in European and World Championships’. And my father answered: ‘We can’t afford to travel to Italy’. So they said, ‘Okay, I will speak with the factory, and they can help you’. So that is how I started."