A remarkable rise to the top in Formula One
Less than six years after he watched his first Formula One race, 24-year old Spaniard Fernando Alonso was crowned Formula One`s youngest world champion on Sunday.
Alonso knew little of the legends amongst whom his name will now sit, young winners like Emerson Fittipaldi and Jim Clark, when he switched the television on to watch Michael Schumacher battling Mika Hakkinen for the title in 1999.

But since then the 24-year old, who hails from the northern city of Oviedo, has had a meteoric rise up to the pinnacle of the motorsport ladder and single-handedly transformed the following of the sport in his home country on the way.

"I think the first race I saw was in 1999 with Hakkinen or Michael," admitted Alonso who was third in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday earning the six points he needed to secure the title. "Before that, in Spain, we had no Formula One. I was never obsessed with making it to Formula One. I was never certain that I could become a Formula One driver, although I have raced since I was very young."

"Until a few years ago, I thought I would be a go-kart mechanic. I didn`t see any races from Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost or anything. I never thought about these old cars or about racing at that time. Formula One didn`t exist in Spain even three years ago.

"Now we have seven million people watching the TV every race! There are lots of people who have been hoping to see me do well and the only way to make that happen is to work hard and do my best."

Alonso`s Renault car is, by sheer coincidence, painted in the colours of his home region of Spain and his presence on the grid has seen those colours waving throughout the country since his rise to the top.

He signed up with managing director Flavio Briatore before his Formula One debut with Minardi in 2001 and took his place in the Renault race team in 2003 after a stint learning the ropes as a test driver.

As assured off the track as he is on it, Alonso is the model professional, taking care of sponsors, making sure the quote-hungry international media is satisfied and, most importantly, making sure his car is as fast as it can be.

Teamwork, as they say, makes the dream work, and that philosophy is what has taken Alonso from being a driver with the talent to win to a potential champion with the consistency to perform whatever challenge is put in front of him.

He won his first Grand Prix in Hungary in 2003 and was immediately telephoned by the King of Spain, a keen motor racing fan.

After a lean year in 2004, with no wins, there was no sitting back and he turned on the talent this year with three wins from the first four races. He has never looked back.

"I never thought I would be able to achieve so much in such a short space of time but I am not thinking about records," said Alonso. "It is a nice feeling to have those records but when you are on the track, they don`t count for anything."

Alonso, a Real Madrid fan and part-time magician, has always been interested in motorsport, despite his lack of grounding in Formula One, and he is indebted to his father Jose Luis, who he says is his biggest influence.

His favourite music is El canto del loco, a Spanish pop group formed in a theatre school in Madrid, and he says that away from the track he is as normal as any other person of his age.

But pressure forced him out of Spain and he now lives in Oxford, partly to be close to the Renault factory, which is just ten minutes away from his current home, but also to make life much easier.

Earlier this year his family home was besieged by the media as his popularity soared in the days building up to his home race in Spain, one, incidentally, that he is still waiting to win. It was a pressure he just did not need.

"It`s impossible to live in Spain because the people recognise me too much and they get crazy," said Alonso. "I have found a perfect place for me in England and I enjoy my time there. The factory is close and the airports are close so I can go anywhere and from my little town in Spain it was impossible. My life is much more comfortable now.

"I have friends who come from Spain when they have no school or university, I play soccer every Wednesday so I think I do a normal life, sport, computers, video games, go out for dinner, go to the cinema, a completely normal life."

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was just a few months older than Alonso is now when he took his first world title in 1994 with the Benetton team that was eventually bought out to become Renault.

Schumacher has gone on to win 84 races in 228 Grands Prix having moved to Ferrari in 1996, so with Alonso still a relative rookie after just 65 races could history repeat itself?

"Well, I am still only young and every year experience teaches you more," said Alonso. "You learn more every time you step in the car. With each race you improve and get stronger than before.

"Formula One is a strange world but if you have clear values you can maintain the separation between truth and fiction. If people praise you, you cannot let it go to your head, because at the next race you could be criticised.

"I have the constant drive to win, all the time, and I am strong minded. I just see myself as being lucky because my job is also what I enjoy most in the world and I can gain a living through it."


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