23/07/2010

Let's Look At: Fernando Alonso

This week, I'm looking at my favourite F1 driver this season. He's had such a lot of bad luck, but at least Spain won for him in the football two weeks ago!

Name: Fernando Alonso Diaz
Date of Birth: 29th July 1981
Place of Birth: Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Sport: Formula 1 racing
Car number: 8
Team: Ferrari
Number of F1 races so far: 150
Best finish this season: 1st (Bahrain)
Worst finish this season: 14 (Silverstone)
Average finish this season: 6.3
Average qualifier this season: 7.9
Points this season (up to Silverstone): 98
Points in whole career: 675
Best career finish: 1st (2005 – 133pts, 2006 - 134pts)

Fernando Alonso began his F1 career with Minardi, and came 23rd in his first season, in 2001. In 2002, he was a test driver for Renault, then became one of their best drivers, coming 6th in 2003, 4th in 2004, then winning the championship for them in 2005 and 2006! In 2007 – his one season with Hamilton (that didn't go down so well), he came third to the young driver. He returned to Renault for two more years, before going into Ferrari this year.
Unfortunately, Ferrari have been plagued with problems since Bahrain. Either Massa, Alonso or both have done badly, although a cunning move with the safety car in Monaco brought Alonso up from starting in the pits, to finishing sixth. He's always been determined, but frustrations with other drivers and car problems have held him back.
However, despite all that, Alonso is one of very few drivers this season to not retire – the others are Lewis Hamilton, teammate Filipe Massa, Nico Rosberg and one-race driver Yamamoto. This means that although the Ferraris have had some problems, they haven't been bad enough for retirements yet, making them the most reliable cars in Formula 1. In fact, Ferrari are still the third team in the championship this season, and Alonso is fifth.

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