That career began in 2001 when he joined Minardi, which was the bottom team on the grid, and now 21 years later, is signing up with a team at present second to last on the grid.
When he raced for Minardi, he out-drove the car and his performances caught the eye of Flavio Briatore, who wasted no time in signing him as a reserve driver for his Renault team for 2002, on the basis he would drive for the team in 2003. He did, winning the Hungarian GP and becoming at the time, aged 21, F1's youngest grand prix winner. He built on that success and won the world championship in 2005, dethroning Michael Schumacher, who had won the championship five years running for Ferrari. Alonso repeated as champion in 2006, and then replaced Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren for 2007.
McLaren had the best car and a three-peat as champion looked to be on the cards, but McLaren team boss Ron Dennis had also signed Lewis Hamilton, the 2006 GP2 champion. It soon became apparent to Alonso that Hamilton was the favoured one, so instead of being the number one driver, he felt more like the number two.
The disgruntled Alonso's fall-out with McLaren was complete when he informed the FIA that McLaren had received illegally through a disgruntled employee, Ferrari intellectual property in the form of blueprints of the Ferrari design. McLaren was fined $100m by the FIA. To rub salt in the wound, Hamilton and Alonso lost the drivers' title to Raikkonen by one point each, which remains the last time Ferrari won the drivers' championship. It was untenable for Alonso to remain with McLaren, so he returned to Renault for two seasons, before joining Ferrari in 2010.
Alonso has not always made the best decisions when it comes to joining teams, and his critics will suggest that this latest move is yet another misguided one. But he believes Aston Martin has better resources and more money than Alpine, and that the team, like himself, wants success. He is leaving Alpine because he wanted a two-year deal, but the team was only prepared to offer one year in F1 and one year in Endurance racing, which would allow him to race at Le Mans again.
But it seems they underestimated his determination to remain in F1 despite being 41 years old, and perhaps forgot that he has already won Le Mans twice, so that dangled carrot held limited appeal.
Alpine's plan seems to have been to keep Alonso for one more year, and then replace him in 2024 with Oscar Piastri, the 2021 F2 champion, who is part of the Renault junior driver academy. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer only found out about Alonso's move in the press release from Aston Martin, and said he hadn't spoken to Alonso.
"I haven't talked to him, since he's on a boat, I think, in the Greek Isles somewhere," Szafnauer said.
Alonso then posted on Twitter that he was in fact in his hometown of Oviedo, Spain, and added: "Can confirm the mobile signal is just fine."
Alonso wanted two years and more money, whilst Alpine offered only one year because of Alonso's age.
Szafnauer then put out a press release confirming the expected news that Piastri would be driving for the team in 2023. Unfortunately, it seems Szafnauer's communication skills have deserted him, because within hours, Piastri also took to Twitter.
"I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 has put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year," the post read.
In the space of 24 hours, Alpine had, in embarrassing circumstances, lost the services of a two-time world champion, and a young gun who has been touted as a future world champion. It also fell out with adviser Alain Prost, a four-time world champion, before the season began.
If Szafnauer was surprised by Alonso's move, he must have been flabbergasted by the boldness of Piastri's tweet, who it seems expected Alonso would re-sign with Alpine, so had already signed an agreement to race for McLaren.
That was bad news for McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, who knew his drive was under threat for under-performing compared to his teammate, Lando Norris, but understood team boss Zak Brown wanted him to continue, as he has a contract to do so. Now it seems Ricciardo has been informed he is no longer required, leaving Alpine to hint they could take back the driver who left the team, then called Renault, at the end of the 2020 season.
Talk about musical chairs, but the music may be a bit flat for some of the players in this contractual mess, which could see the FIA Contract Recognition Board with some work to do over the summer break.
The man behind the Piastri move is his manager, former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, whom Szafnauer said he had been trying to contact, but couldn't because he was in Australia and apparently had his phoned switched off.
A similar scenario to the Piastri-Ricciardo one is also being played out in the US, as Zak Brown's McLaren team is believed to have snatched 2021 Indycar champion, Alex Palou, away from Chip Ganassi Racing. The latter issued a press release confirming Palou would drive for the team in 2023, but hours later Palou took to Twitter to say, a la Piastri, that neither he nor his management had approved the Ganassi statement and said he did not "for personal reasons" intend to continue with Ganassi in 2023.
Ganassi has already issued court proceedings against Palou. It seems incredible that the McLaren company has got itself involved in contractual disputes on both sides of the Atlantic.
Alex Albon, who has had his Williams contract renewed, was able to see the funny side of the Piastri-Alpine fiasco, by taking to Twitter himself, tongue firmly in cheek.
"I understand, with my agreement, Williams Racing has put out a press release this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is right and I have signed a contract with Williams for 2023. I will be driving for Williams next year."
Those who have followed the history of contractual disputes in F1 may recall that in 1991 a certain Michael Schumacher made his debut for the Jordan Racing team at Spa, and Eddie Jordan recognised that he had a star on his hands and was desperate to get Schumacher's signature on a contract, knowing that Briatore from the Benetton team was also keen to sign the German, who in qualifying the Jordan in seventh place on debut, had given every indication he was a superstar in the making.
There was no Twitter in 1991 but Schumacher sent Jordan a fax: "Dear Eddie, I'm very sorry but I'm not going to be able to drive for your team."
Instead, he joined Benetton and won the world championship with that team in 1994 and 1995, amidst claims the team was cheating with the floor of the car, something that now seems to be an accepted fact. It is no coincidence that Briatore still has a presence in F1 as Alonso's manager, and it is ironic that the Jordan team morphed into being Aston Martin, while Benetton morphed into being Alpine.
The key to driver contracts is that they all usually contain an option clause that expires on August 1, which was the day after the Hungarian GP. So, if Alpine was to take up its option on Piastri, it should have done so by that date, and failed to do so, but Alpine remain defiant.
"I'm not privy to whatever pre-arrangements he has with McLaren, if any at all," Szafnauer says.
"I hear the same rumours that you do in the pitlane," he told an Autosport reporter. "But what I do know is that he does have contractual obligations to us, and we do to him. And we've been honouring those obligations all year. And those obligations last through '23, possibly in '24, if some options are taken up."
"Oscar is our number one preferred candidate. And that's what we're going to do," he added but also said he had "expected more loyalty than Oscar is showing."
The curious thing is that apart from doing tests for Alpine, Piastri has no F1 race experience, yet McLaren seems to think he might be the next big thing in F1 if they are prepared to cancel Ricciardo's contract, which may mean having to pay him off. Benetton got it right with Schumacher. Has McLaren got it right with Piastri?
The dust may settle before F1 resumes at Spa on August 28, and it will be fascinating to see if Alpine and McLaren can get the best out of Alonso and Ricciardo respectively, given one has defected and the other has been dismissed. PPiastri may feel the welcome mat at the Alpine motorhome is shifting under his young feet.
Sources: F1.com; Autosport
