A is for Alonso: The Driver Who Ended an Era

We open Season 2 of Chequered Past — The F1 A-Z — with the only driver who could start the alphabet. Fernando Alonso. Two world championships. Thirty-two race wins. More than four hundred Grands Prix across a career that has taken in Formula One, Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship, and three attempts at the Indianapolis 500. And at the time of recording, still racing.But the statistics only tell part of the story. This episode is about what drives him — and what he's done when the car beneath him wasn't good enough to win at all.We cover his early life in working-class Oviedo, the kart built for his sister that changed everything, and the path from the karting circuits of northern Spain through Formula 3000 to a debut season at Minardi in the worst car on the grid. We trace his rise through Renault, the championships that followed, the complicated years at McLaren and Ferrari, the Crashgate controversy, the departure from Formula One, the Le Mans victories, the Indy heartbreak, and the return.Then the Top 5. Our pick of the five races that define Fernando Alonso as a Formula One driver.The debate question this week: Cyril Abiteboul called Alonso "probably the most complete driver on earth." Nick Heidfeld said the same. Is that verdict right? And if it is — what does it say about a sport that gave him only two world championships?Send us Fan MailMusic by #Mubert Music Rendering