Happy birthday Fernando Alonso! The Spaniard who is still performing at 40

Fernando Alonso, two-time champion in Formula 1, turns 40 today. This makes him, after Kimi Raikkonen (41), the oldest and most experienced driver in the current field. The Spaniard has made a colourful list of achievements and successes since the start of his career.

Like many drivers, he started his career as a karter. His first win in karting came at the age of seven. He went on to win countless races and championships, and then made his debut in a race car at the age of 17 (1999). He did this in the Euro Open Cup with Campos Motorsport.

Formula 1 career

His F1 career is quite extensive. It all started at Minardi, of course, where he was first a reserve driver and was then handed a seat. After that he moved to Renault, where he raced until 2006. With Renault he won his two championships in 2005 and 2006.

After that the Spaniard would drive for McLaren and back again to Renault before moving to Ferrari from 2010 to 2014. The goal there was to capture a third championship, but it didn't work out. He then returned to McLaren in 2015, where he drove until 2019. He then took a two-year leave from Formula 1 and returned in 2021 to race for his current team, Alpine.

Career outside F1

Alonso has been successful away from F1 too. He has driven the 24 Hours of Daytona and Indy 500, among others, and he's competed in the latter three times, but never won the race. He also participated in the Dakar Rally in 2020, which he also completed. In short: Alonso has done just about everything you can think of and certainly seems to be far from finished in Formula 1.