The Asturian pilot meets again this weekend with the Spanish fans.
Fernando Alonso debuted in Formula 1 in 2001 and at that time the following of the premier class in Spain was much less than today. The races could not even be seen openly and live on television, something that radically changed with the Asturian’s arrival in the championship and his first wins.
Alonso has remembered it in an interview with Alpine, in which he has reviewed his careers in Spain, where he has achieved three wins throughout his extensive sports career, and also the two-time F1 champion talks about the legacy he would like to leave in his country once I quit the sport.
“It was incredible to see the change of F1 in Spain. I debuted in 2001 and then we didn’t even have live coverage of the races, so we had to find a way to watch F1, either on German television, with a parabolic or in some way, because there was no way to see F1,” recalls Alonso.
“Three or four years later there was a big change and we were competing against football in spectators. It was a big change. There were a lot of commercials (during the races) and my face was everywhere. In those years my life also changed a lot. And also to the country, which discovered a wonderful sport,” he adds.
Three victories in Spain
Fernando Alonso has achieved three victories in Spain throughout his more than 20-year sports career. The first time was in 2006 with Renault, at a packed Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, flooded by the blue tide that followed him around the world in those years.
He then won in 2012 at the Valencia Urban Circuit in a race to remember with Ferrari, in which he started from eleventh place after a poor qualifying. And finally, he won the 2013 Spanish GP, which is also his last victory in Formula 1 so far.
“I have had two home races, in Barcelona and in Valencia. In both circuits we had special weekends with great support from the fans,” says Alonso. “I remember the years of the championships, 2005, 2006 or 2007, with all the stands full of fans wearing blue. It’s a magical atmosphere.”
“It is very special when from the stands you hear your name with all those flags and you see how they live the races. It is something quite unique in Spain in your home race. F1 is lived in a unique way in Spain and perhaps also in Brazil. The fans get up when you pass, you see it from the car and that’s very nice,” he says.
“In Spain a little something extra, you feel the support of the fans and you try to give them something special. The level of concentration is a little higher than in other races,” he adds.
Open to help young talents
Alonso, who a few months ago presented an agency from which he will work to help promote young talent in the motor world, assures that he will try to leave his legacy “in the sport that has given me so much.”
“I have been fortunate to race in Formula 1 and to have a fast car to be a champion. And now, with that experience and the contacts that I have, if you have the opportunity to help young talent, you have to do it. This is a individual sport in which you are alone in the car, but if I can help (other drivers) fulfill their dreams, I will be very happy,” he confesses.
