Fernando Alonso may not be in the title fight, indeed he will almost certainly not even be in the mix for a win at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, but the Spaniard will be making Formula One history nonetheless. The meeting will be his 400th, no driver has more, and behind them lies the story of an engrossing career: of exceptional talent and success and of promise lost for a driver who has always been nothing but compelling.
The Spaniard is 43 and this season at Aston Martin will be his 21st in F1 since he made his debut for Minardi in 2001. He has taken 32 wins and two world championships, in 2005 and 2006, and while he has come close since he has never secured another. When asked about reaching his 400th race Alonso’s response said it all about what really mattered.
“I would love to race half of the 400 and win one more championship, or win more races,” he says. “That’s the important statistics you want to achieve.”
He knows he should have had more. He is, after all, defined by a fearsome competitiveness. Yet that in itself has proved both an asset and a drawback. If his decision making in the cockpit can be unparalleled, outside it, the Spaniard has been found wanting.
Talent and determination were integral to securing those first two championships for Renault and in some style, given he had to beat Michael Schumacher to do so. At the time more titles seemed inevitable, yet it was not to be and in the interim Sebastian Vettel claimed four, Lewis Hamilton won seven and Max Verstappen has three.
George Russell suffered another high-speed crash as championship leader Max Verstappen complained of engine issues during practice for the Mexico Grand Prix. Russell, who had topped the standings in first practice, caught the kerb and careered at turn nine 12 minutes into the second session. It comes a week after the Briton crashed during qualifying in Austin.
The Mercedes driver was taken to the medical centre and the 90-minute session – an hour of which was devoted to Pirelli tyre testing for 2025 – was red-flagged for 24 minutes. Mercedes later confirmed Russell had been released from the medical centre and was OK.
Verstappen complained of an engine problem during Friday's opening running in Mexico City but the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, said between the sessions that the team believed it was a 'menial issue'. The world championship leader, was soon reporting a 'disturbing' noise in second practice, however, and was twice called back into the pits, ultimately unable to post a timed lap.
If Verstappen is forced to take a new power unit between now and the end of the season, he will incur a grid penalty. Lando Norris had sat out first practice as Mexican rookie Pato O'Ward drove his McLaren. Russell posted the fastest time ahead of Carlos Sainz, with Verstappen fourth.
Norris was back behind the wheel in second practice and, as the session came to a close, moved his McLaren up to fifth on a set of medium tyres. Sainz topped the charts ahead of Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda.
Later, it was confirmed that McLaren had failed in their bid to overturn Lando Norris' penalty from the US Grand Prix. The team invoked a 'right of review', asking the stewards to look again at the turn 12 incident in Austin, where Norris was handed a five-second penalty for leaving the track while overtaking Max Verstappen in the closing stages.
That demoted the British driver below his title rival as the Dutchman extended his championship lead to 57 points. Earlier this week, Norris repeated his view that the penalty was unfair and said he believes Verstappen, who also left the track, was only ahead because he braked late and had no intention of making the corner.
McLaren felt they had 'a significant and new element that was unavailable to us at the time the decision was made' – but the FIA rejected their claim after a video meeting with stewards as there was no 'relevant new element'. PA Media
At his best Alonso is mesmerising, a force of nature with tremendous pace and intuitive race craft. Across the previous 399 races, for all that it has been a rollercoaster, some highlights remain unforgettable: holding off Schumacher at Imola in 2005, the German climbing all over him but with no way through; his win from 11th in Valencia in 2012, a grand, swashbuckling affair; or even his demonstration of racing awareness and ability to exploit it in Fuji in 2008. More recently his stint through the night at the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours was a race-winning piece of driving and a reminder why he is still considered one of the greatest of his generation.
When he joined Ferrari in 2010 it was almost by sheer dint of will that Alonso dragged the Scuderia into the title fight, a championship where he had been 47 points off the lead at the British GP but went into the season finale with an eight-point lead. A third title was lost there only by a cataclysmic Ferrari strategy error. He repeated another bravura charge in 2012 in what was perhaps a worse car but again was pipped by Vettel.
Yet his last win was in 2013 and as far back as his first stint at McLaren in 2007 there were indications that with the genius came significant baggage. He alienated some within the team in what quickly became a fractious relationship as Hamilton made his F1 debut and proved to be more than a match for the then world champion. One member of McLaren at that time has been quoted as saying he was “the most disruptive and divisive figure I have ever had the displeasure of working with”.
He returned to a relatively uncompetitive Renault, then to Ferrari, just as Red Bull became dominant and where, once more, the relationship soured and he returned to McLaren. This time the promise of a new works engine with Honda was expected to fuel the comeback but that too fell apart. Alonso’s public dissatisfaction with the underperforming engine led to a complete breakdown in relations. He had – again – been in the wrong place at the wrong time and more bridges had been burned.
A break to pursue Le Mans and the Indy 500 ensued before he returned in 2021 with Alpine and then the move to Aston Martin in 2023. That he still had his touch was clear, his defence against a charging Hamilton in Hungary in 2021 was a masterclass and enough to ensure his teammate, Esteban Ocon, went on to win. Then, when Aston opened 2023 with a quick car, Alonso was on it in a flash, his touch and pace when finally in competitive machinery just as they had been in his heyday. A slew of podium finishes ensued and, although Aston could not keep up the development, the Spaniard has tied his fate to the British team, with a contract until the end of 2026.
If he sees that out, and he seems as motivated as ever, he will be 45, the oldest F1 driver since Graham Hill ended his career in 1975. By which point the tally will be close to 450 races, albeit not a number that matters to Alonso, nor one he even imagined when it all began. “That guy in 2001, I was not really thinking too much in the future, the dream was coming alive, driving F1,” he says. “I didn’t have a clear roadmap into my career. I didn’t know exactly what was the next race, what will be my next team. I was improvising, every weekend was a new adventure.”
