Racing career in details

Start of racing career (1999)

Aged 17, Alonso made his car racing debut in the 1999 Euro Open by Nissan with Campos Motorsport, winning the title from Manuel Gião at the final race of the season with six wins and nine pole positions.For 2000, he progressed to the higher-tier International Formula 3000 Championship with the Minardi-backed Team Astromega, after a sponsorship agreement with driver Robert Lechner fell through.Alonso finished second at the Hungaroring and won the season-ending round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for fourth overall with 17 points.

From Minardi to Renault, becoming World F1 Champion (2001-2006)

Cesare Fiorio, the sports director, gave Alonso a test in a Formula One car at the Circuito de Jerez in December 1999 as part of the Euro Open by Nissan's organising company RPM agreement to give its series champion an opportunity to test at a higher level. He was Minardi's test and reserve driver in 2000 before joining its race team in 2001. In a non-competitive car, Alonso's best result of the season was a tenth-place finish in the German Grand Prix and scored no points for 23rd overall.

He signed as Renault's test driver for 2002 per the orders of manager Flavio Briatore to familiarise himself with the team and improve himself for the future. Alonso worked with the engineering department to improve Giancarlo Fisichella's and Jenson Button's performance, and tested in Spain and the United Kingdom. He drove a Jaguar in an evaluation session against test drivers André Lotterer and James Courtney at the Silverstone Circuit in May 2002. Alonso was promoted to the Renault race team for 2003. He went on to break the records of youngest driver to win a pole position at the season's second race, the Malaysian Grand Prix, and broke Bruce McLaren's record as the youngest Formula One race winner at the Hungarian Grand Prix later in the year. He achieved four podium finishes in 2003 and was sixth in the World Drivers' Championship with 55 points.

He remained with Renault for 2004. Alonso had an improved season: he finished the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in third position and took three more podium finishes that year. He took pole position for the French Grand Prix and achieved no race victories en route to fourth in the World Drivers' Championship with 59 points.Alonso stayed at Renault for 2005. He duelled with McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen for the World Championship in 2005 due to regulation changes mandating teams not to change tyres during a race and engines had to last for two races before they could be changed. Alonso's car was more reliable than Räikkönen's albeit lacking in speed. Alonso eclipsed Emerson Fittipaldi as the youngest World Drivers' Champion with seven victories, six pole positions and fourteen podium finishes for 133 points.

He signed a contract extension with Renault for 2006 in April 2005. Bookmakers installed Alonso as the favourite to retain the Drivers' Championship. His primary competition was Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher. Alonso won six of the first nine races and finished no lower than second to lead the championship with 84 out of a possible 90 points. An Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body)-imposed ban on Renault's tuned mass damper device to slow Alonso and an increase of development into Schumacher's Ferrari for competitiveness saw the two tied on points entering the season's penultimate round, the Japanese Grand Prix. Alonso won the race as Schumacher retired due to an engine failure whilst leading. He needed to score one point at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix for a second title. Alonso won the championship and became Formula One's youngest two-time World Champion.

McLaren and second stint with Renault (2007–2009)

He and McLaren team owner Ron Dennis met secretly in Japan after Dennis talked to Alonso about driving for the team in the future and Alonso expressed interest in the idea. Both men agreed to a three-year contract for Alonso to drive for McLaren starting from 2007. Alonso's contract with Renault expired on 31 December 2006, and he was not granted an early release for sponsorship reasons. Renault allowed Alonso to make his first appearance for McLaren in a test session at the Circuito de Jerez in November 2006. His main competitors in 2007 were his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Räikkönen at Ferrari. Alonso achieved four Grand Prix victories in Malaysia, Monaco, Europe and Italy and led the championship until Hamilton overtook him. Prior to the season's final round, the Brazilian Grand Prix, he had 103 championship points to Räikkönen's 100 and Hamilton's 107, and needed to win the race and for his teammate to finish third or lower for his third title. Alonso finished the event third for third overall with 109 points. He had the same number of points as Hamilton; the tie was broken on count-back as Hamilton finished second more often than Alonso.

Throughout the season, Alonso and Hamilton were involved in a number of incidents, such as the espionage scandal and the flare-up during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix when Hamilton disobeyed a team instruction, thus disadvantaging Alonso, and Alonso responded by delaying Hamilton in the pit lane. The tensions culminated in Alonso and McLaren terminating their contract by mutual consent in November. Alonso was forbidden from joining a team whom McLaren considered their primary challengers for 2008. After rejecting offers from several teams, he signed a two-year contract to rejoin Renault from 2008 because of the manufacturer's long-term commitment to Formula One and on-track record. Alonso's car lacked power early on due to an imposed moratorium in development and he scored nine points in the first seven races. He was thereafter able to improve his performance later due to aerodynamic developments to the car's and won in Singapore and Japan; the former race saw Renault order his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash deliberately and trigger the deployment of the safety car in what became known as "crashgate". Alonso scored more points than any other driver in the final five races with 43. He scored 61 points for fifth in the Drivers' Championship.

Alonso was due to become a free agent for 2009 if Renault were lower than third in the Constructors' Championship.[ After offers from Red Bull Racing and Honda, he resigned to Renault on a two-year contract. His car proved to be noncompetitive because it lacked a dual diffuser system and outright speed. Alonso eschewed an aerodynamic front wing mandated in an attempt to make overtaking more possible since he did not believe it would help him. He scored points in eight races and achieved one podium finish: a third-place at the Singapore Grand Prix. Alonso won pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix and led the first 12 laps before he retired following an incorrectly fitted right-front wheel. Alonso was ninth in the Drivers' Championship with 26 points, his lowest placing since he came sixth in 2003; he maintained his reputation as one of Formula One's best drivers.

Ferrari (2010-2014)

He agreed with Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to drive for Ferrari in 2009, but team principal Jean Todt extended the contracts of both Felipe Massa and Räikkönen to 2010. Alonso obtained a mid-2009 agreement to drive for Ferrari from 2011 on but it was moved to 2010 after Renault were investigated for race fixing in Singapore and Räikkönen was released from the team. McLaren's Hamilton and Button and Red Bull's of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were Alonso's main championship competition. He won five races that season and entered the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix leading by eight points after being 47 behind mid-season following errors. Alonso finished runner-up to Vettel after he was unable to pass Renault's Vitaly Petrov following a strategy error by Ferrari.

His 2011 season was mixed: his car was built conservatively and lacked aerodynamic grip and tyre handling in qualifying. He extracted additional pace from his car to claim ten podium finishes and win the British Grand Prix after a strategy error from Red Bull. His best qualification of the year was a second at the Canadian Grand Prix and he out-qualified his teammate Massa fifteen times over the course of the season. Alonso was fourth overall with 257 points; he was in contention to finish second to eventual champion Vettel following a series of strong finishes until Webber won the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Ahead of 2012, Alonso extended his contract with Ferrari until 2016. His main competition for the title in 2012 was Vettel. Wins in Malaysia, Valencia and Germany and consistent points-scoring finishes allowed him to build a 40-point lead in the Drivers' Championship. Thereafter start-line collisions, a mechanical failure and an improved performance for Vettel eliminated Alonso's points lead. Alonso entered the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix 13 points behind Vettel and needed to finish third and for Vettel not to score points for a third championship. He was second and Vettel finished fourth to be runner-up for the second time in his career on 278 points.

To begin 2013, Alonso drove an aggressively designed car allowing him to win in China and Spain and consistently scored points. He was slower than Vettel after a change of tyre compound at the German Grand Prix and front and rear bodywork components intended to improve his car's performance were ineffective. With 242 points, Alonso was second for the third time in his career. His relationship with Ferrari cooled due to his perception the team could not construct a title-winning car.Alonso's 2014 season saw him achieve no race wins because his car was less powerful than the championship-winning Mercedes but took third in the Chinese Grand Prix and second in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso fell to sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 161 points. He qualified faster than his teammate Räikkönen 16 times by an average of more than ½ second per lap in 2014.

Return to McLaren (2015-2018)

Alonso had severe disagreements with team principal Marco Mattiacci in 2014 and left Ferrari after contract negotiations to remain at the team fell through. He rejoined McLaren on a three-year contract from 2015 to 2017 with no opt-out clauses. An accident during a pre-season test session at Spain's Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in February 2015 saw Alonso sustain a concussion and he was replaced by reserve driver Kevin Magnussen for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. He endured a difficult season: his car's Honda engine was under-powered and overall speed leaving him vulnerable to being passed. Alonso scored points twice in 2015: a tenth in the British Grand Prix and a fifth in the Hungarian Grand Prix for 17th in the Drivers' Championship with 11 points. He was dissatisfied with a slow pace, which became evident after multiple radio complaints that year.

Despite the unreliable and noncompetitive car, Alonso remained for McLaren for 2016. Injuries from a heavy crash with Esteban Gutiérrez at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix caused him to miss the Bahrain Grand Prix on medical grounds and was replaced by reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne. Alonso qualified better than teammate Button fifteen times and scored points nine times, which included two fifth-place finishes in the Monaco Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix. He was tenth in the Drivers' Championship with 54 points. Alonso told his colleagues he would stay at McLaren in 2017. Poor reliability affected his season, particularly during the early rounds, and his best finish was a seventh in the Hungarian Grand Prix. After three consecutive top-ten finishes, Alonso finished 15th in the Drivers' Championship with 17 points.

Following contract negotiations with the McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Alonso signed a multi-year extension with McLaren on 19 October 2017. He finished fifth at the season-opening 2018 Australian Grand Prix and took nine top-ten finishes. Alonso out-qualified his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne at every race and drove quickly and aggressively. He became increasingly annoyed with certain drivers and his commitment to Formula One waned after McLaren stopped developing his car to focus on 2019. Alonso was 11th in the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, and left the sport as a driver at the end of the 2018 season, citing a perceived lack of on-track racing, the predictability of results and felt discussions away from racing about the broadcast of radio transmissions and polemics harmed the series.

Alpine 2021

Alonso was signed to drive for Alpine F1 Team for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, alongside Esteban Ocon, after Renault rebranded the teamname to Alpine from 2021 onwards. In preparation for his Formula One return, Alonso performed four testing days driving the Renault R.S.18 and topped the timing charts in the post 2020 season young driver's test driving the Renault R.S.20 for Renault. In his first race with Alpine he had to retire after plastic debris entered his brake duct. At the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix he finished in P11, with teammate Ocon just ahead in P10, but both would be upgraded one position after Kimi Räikkönen was penalised, therefore giving Alonso his first points of the season in his second race back in Formula One.

New challenges

LMP2 Experience

In 2018, Alonso raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona for the first time. He shared the No. 22 United Autosports Ligier JS P2 with Lando Norris and Philip Hanson, which finished 38th overall after mechanical issues affected his race.

FIA World Endurance Series

He later raced the full 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima at Toyota Gazoo Racing. Sharing the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, the trio won the World Drivers' Championship after a season-long duel with their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López with five race victories, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 2018 and 2019.

A return in LMP2

Alonso returned to compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019. He won the rain-shortened race in a Wayne Taylor Racing-entered Cadillac DPi-V.R with Kobayashi, Renger van der Zande and Jordan Taylor.

Indianapolis 500

He first drove the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. Alonso drove for McLaren Honda Andretti, qualifying in fifth position for the race and leading four times for a total of 24 laps before retiring with engine failure with 21 laps remaining while running in seventh place. He was classified 24th. He returned to the Indianapolis 500 for a second time with McLaren in 2019. An error converting inches to the metric system causing his car to scrape the tarmac surface on his first lap on track and incorrect gear ratios meant Alonso failed to qualify for the race. He entered the Indianapolis 500 in 2020 for his third attempt at winning the race, this time with Arrow McLaren SP after an agreement with Andretti Autosport fell through. Alonso finished the race in 21st after clutch issues slowed pit stops.

Dakar

Alonso entered the Dakar Rally with Toyota in 2020 following a five-month training programme testing in Africa, Europe and the Middle East and driving a series of races to better himself. With co-driver Marc Coma, he finished the event in 13th position with a best stage finish of second place. A stop for repairs on the second stage and a roll on the 10th lost him several hours in the general classification.

All the info's are taken from Wikipedia.