20-year-old Fernando Alonso once defeated nine-time Le Mans winner at Race of Champions

Fernando Alonso is one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He has two Championship wins to his name, but a lot of people feel that he would have won more if he had race-winning cars at his disposal. Today, at 41 years old, he’s still at the top of his game in the sport, but most of his success came when he was much younger.

Alonso made his F1 debut in 2001, and his two Title wins came during his Renault stint in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He won quite a few races thereafter with McLaren and Ferrari, but the glory days of his early career never came back. However, when he left F1 in 2018 to pursue other racing ventures, he tasted success in Le Mans, winning it twice in two years. Le Mans is one of the most prestigious and difficult races to win, and Alonso made that look easy.

Early on in his career, Alonso also comfortably defeated a Le Mans Champion during a Race of Champions outing. At the 2001 installment of the RoC, the 20-year-old Alonso went one on one with nine-time Champion Tom Kristensen and came out on top. It was a shocking result, and Alonso proved why he was so highly regarded.

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Fernando Alonso aiming for long-term success at new team Aston Martin

At 41 years old, most drivers enter the twilight of their career and look at life away from racing, but not Alonso. The Spaniard returned to F1 in 2021 with Alpine and spent two seasons there, but grew frustrated at the team’s inability to fight at the front of the grid. Strained relationship with team principal Otmar Szafnauer contributed to his departure to Aston Martin.

Aston Martin themselves lost a legendary driver in Sebastian Vettel who retired after the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP. Alonso will be Vettel’s replacement at the Silverstone-based outfit, but a huge chunk of the F1 community feel that the Oviedo-born driver will struggle there.

Alonso, however, insists that he still wants to fight for wins and Titles and that he wouldn’t stay in F1 if he didn’t want to. He is adamant that Aston Martin has what it takes to help him return to the top in the next 2-3 years.

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