Junior racing career Alonso drove in the
2000 International Formula 3000 Championship. Aged seventeen, 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, Alonso finished second at the
Hungaroring and won the season-ending round at
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for fourth overall with seventeen points. He was Minardi's test and reserve driver in before joining its race team in . Alonso's best result of the season was a tenth-place finish in the and scored no
points for 23rd overall. 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 . He achieved four podium finishes in 2003 and was sixth in the
World Drivers' Championship with 55 points. Alonso had an improved season: he finished the season-opening in third position and took three more podium finishes that year. He took pole position for the but achieved no race victories en route to fourth in the World Drivers' Championship with 59 points. Alonso eclipsed
Emerson Fittipaldi as the youngest World Drivers' Champion, having won seven victories, six pole positions and fourteen podium finishes for 133 points altogether. 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. Alonso won the championship by finishing second and was Formula 1's youngest double World Champion. 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 , 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. , after his teammate,
Nelson Piquet Jr., was ordered to crash deliberately. 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 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 . 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 F1 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; He scored 61 points for fifth in the Drivers' Championship. After offers from
Red Bull Racing and
Honda, he re-signed 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. Alonso won pole position for the and led the first twelve laps before he retired following an incorrectly fitted right-front wheel. Alonso was ninth in the Drivers' Championship with 26 points, Alonso obtained a mid-2009 agreement to drive for Ferrari from 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 leading by eight points after being 47 behind mid-season following errors. Alonso finished runner-up to Vettel after finishing seventh thereby losing nineteen points to Vettel who won the race. Alonso's 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 after a strategy error from Red Bull. His best qualification of the year was a second at the 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 . Ahead of , Alonso extended his contract with Ferrari until . 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 13 points behind Vettel and needed to finish third and for Vettel not to score points for a third championship. He was slower than Vettel after a change of tyre compound at the 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. 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 and second in the . Alonso fell to sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 161 points. 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 . 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 and a fifth in the for seventeenth in the Drivers' Championship with eleven points. Despite the unreliable and noncompetitive car, Alonso remained with McLaren for . Injuries from a heavy crash with
Esteban Gutiérrez at the season-opening caused him to miss the on medical grounds and was replaced by reserve driver
Stoffel Vandoorne. He qualified better than teammate Button fifteen times and scored points nine times, which included two fifth-place finishes in the and the . He was tenth in the Drivers' Championship with 54 points. but poor reliability affected his season, particularly during the early rounds, and his best finish was a sixth place in the . After three consecutive top-ten finishes, Alonso finished fifteenth in the Drivers' Championship with seventeen points. Alonso signed a multi-year extension with McLaren on 19 October 2017. He finished fifth at the season-opening 2018 and took nine top-ten finishes. Alonso was eleventh in the Drivers' Championship with fifty points, Alonso remained at McLaren as a brand ambassador to aid and advise drivers and drove in select test sessions to develop their cars. Alonso drove the
MCL34 during a two-day in-season post-race Bahrain test in April 2019 to develop tyres for Pirelli. No further runs were planned for him and McLaren focused on their current drivers. Alonso's ambassador contract with McLaren expired at the end of 2019, and was not renewed for 2020.
Alpine (2021–2022) , upon his return to Formula One Alonso was signed to drive for
Alpine F1 Team for the season, alongside
Esteban Ocon, with Renault having rebranded the team under its new name. In preparation for his F1 return, Alonso performed four testing days driving the
Renault R.S.18 and was quickest in the post-2020 season young driver's test driving the
Renault R.S.20 for Renault. In his first race with Alpine at the
2021 Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso was forced to retire after plastic debris entered his brake duct. At the
2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix he finished in eleventh after qualifying fifteenth, with teammate Ocon finishing ahead in tenth, but both were upgraded one position after
Kimi Räikkönen was penalised, giving Alonso his first points of the season. In
Hungary, Alonso temporarily led the race before he made a pit stop and fell to fourth, ahead of
Lewis Hamilton. Teammate Ocon credited Alonso's defence against Hamilton with enabling him to achieve his first race victory. In August 2021, Alonso invoked an option to extend his contract for the season. Alonso scored points in multiple races following the summer break, finishing sixth in the
Netherlands, eighth in
Italy, sixth in
Russia, having run in third in Russia before being forced to pit under wet conditions, and third in
Qatar. Alonso achieved his highest start driving for Alpine during wet qualifying for the
Canadian Grand Prix, starting in second, but had to endure questionable strategies and an engine issue that developed during the race. He dropped down to seventh, and furthermore, received a post-race time penalty that dropped him down to ninth.
Aston Martin (2023–present) , with
Aston Martin Alonso joined
Aston Martin on a multi-year deal in alongside
Lance Stroll. He joined the team because he wanted a multi-year contract extension, and Alpine was only willing to give him one more year in F1. On his Aston Martin debut at the
2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso, benefitting from the much-improved machinery of the
Aston Martin AMR23, recovered from a first-lap contact with his teammate
Lance Stroll without any damage and went on to finish in third place, securing a podium finish and Aston's first since
Sebastian Vettel's podium at the
2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (the German would finish second at the
2021 Hungarian Grand Prix but would be disqualified due to insufficient fuel sample). Despite having to serve a penalty due to his car being off-position at the starting grid, he finished in third again at the following race at the
2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; this marked his 100th podium, making him the sixth driver to have scored one-hundred podiums in his career. Following the race, he was issued another ten-second penalty due to serving the first one improperly at his pit stop, dropping him to fourth behind
George Russell; however, the team's appeal was accepted and the second penalty was reversed, keeping his podium. , with
Aston Martin Alonso finished in third once again after a chaotic
Australian Grand Prix; the third and final restart of the session saw his car make contact with the Ferrari of
Carlos Sainz Jr., causing the latter driver to receive a five-second penalty; due to this, Sainz would be classified in last place out of the finishing cars. Alonso's car was undamaged. Alonso agreed with Sainz's criticisms of the penalty, stating that it was "too harsh". The Aston Martins were plagued with
DRS issues during qualification of the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, going on to qualify eighth in the new "sprint shootout" qualification and sixth for the main qualification session; he would finish sixth in the sprint race, and fourth in the main race. It was at this point in time the car had dropped in performance, failing to secure podiums on a consistent basis, though he took two podium finishes at
Zandvoort, where he recorded his first fastest lap since the
2017 Hungarian Grand Prix, and
São Paulo; the latter instance edging out
Sergio Pérez by 0.053 seconds. After a seventh-place finish at the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Alonso ended the season fourth in the standings, scoring 206 points against his teammate Stroll's 74. Alonso's fourth position in the standings was his highest finish since . Alonso remained with Aston Martin for the
2024 season. He secured his best finish of the season at the
2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he qualified fourth and finished fifth. At
the following race in Australia he was issued a 20-second post-race penalty for potentially dangerous driving while defending against
George Russell on the penultimate lap. The stewards ruled that Alonso had lifted and braked unusually early into Turn 6 causing a massive closing speed that caused Russell to lose control and crash. The penalty dropped Alonso to eighth. At the
Chinese Grand Prix Alonso retired from the sprint race following a puncture from contact with
Carlos Sainz. Stewards again deemed Alonso at fault, handing him a 10-second penalty and three penalty points that brought his total to six within a single month. At the
2024 Mexico City Grand Prix, Alonso competed in his four-hundredth Grand Prix weekend, becoming the first driver to reach this number of races. Alonso finished the season 9th in the standings, scoring 70 points against Stroll's 24. On his third season with Aston Martin at the
2025 Australian Grand Prix, Alonso’s campaign began poorly as the
AMR25 struggled for pace. Alonso retired after crashing on lap 34 while his teammate
Lance Stroll secured a sixth-place finish. This difficult start persisted through the early rounds of the season where the car lacked the performance of its predecessor, leaving Alonso scoreless and sitting 17th in the standings by May. A significant upgrade package introduced at the
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix began to turn his season around as Alonso qualified 5th but finished 11th courtesy of a poorly-timed virtual safety car. At the
Hungarian Grand Prix, he finished in fifth place, his highest result of the 2025 campaign. This momentum carried into the second half of the season, where he scored in most rounds from
Zandvoort to
Abu Dhabi. In both
Singapore and
Qatar Alonso finished in seventh. After a P7 finish at the
2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Alonso ended the 2025 season 10th in the Drivers' Championship with 56 points compared to Stroll’s 33. Alonso began his 2026 campaign with two retirements at
Australia and
China, and finishing 18th in
Japan. The
AMR26, the first Aston Martin and only car on the grid to be powered by a Honda engine, suffered from reliability issues and lacked pace, causing a very poor start to the season.
Endurance racing Alonso made his sports car endurance racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Barcelona. Paired with
Antonio García, Salvi Delmuns and the journalist Pedro Fermín Flores, the quartet finished third in the M10 class and tenth overall in a
Hyundai Accent. Alonso was due to enter the
2015 24 Hours of Le Mans with
Porsche's
Le Mans Prototype 1 team before Honda blocked it.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (2018–2019) Cadillac DPi-V.R driven in the
2019 24 Hours of Daytona (pictured at the
2017 Petit Le Mans). Alonso drove a
Ligier JS P217 entered by
United Autosports in the
2018 24 Hours of Daytona as preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Alonso,
Philip Hanson and McLaren reserve driver
Lando Norris qualified thirteenth and finished 38th after multiple mechanical issues affected the car during the race. Alonso returned to race in the
2019 24 Hours of Daytona with
Wayne Taylor Racing. He shared a
Cadillac DPi-V.R with
Kamui Kobayashi,
Renger van der Zande and
Jordan Taylor. The quartet completed 593 laps to win the rain-shortened event.
FIA World Endurance Championship (2018–2019) at the
2018 6 Hours of Silverstone. Brown discussed an entry for the
2018 24 Hours of Le Mans with Alonso and was prepared to consent to a switch to another team if certain circumstances were met. Alonso and Toyota held talks and agreed to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He visited Toyota's factory in
Cologne for a seat fitting in a
TS050 Hybrid in November 2017. Toyota entered Alonso into a post-season rookie test at the
Bahrain International Circuit later that month. In January 2018, McLaren and Toyota reached an agreement to allow Alonso to enter the full
2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship. He joined
Sébastien Buemi and
Kazuki Nakajima in Toyota's 8 TS050 Hybrid. Alonso drove a 2018 TS050 Hybrid in a three-day test session at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón in February and drove with no artificial lights in a 24-hour kart race as preparation. He, Buemi and Nakajima won the LMP1 Drivers' Championship with five victories including the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans and the
2019 24 Hours of Le Mans over the eight round season, though this was enhanced by their teammates
Mike Conway,
Kamui Kobayashi and
José María López suffering a sensor issue while leading the
2019 6 Hours of Spa and then suffering a puncture while comfortably leading the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans with an hour remaining. Alonso left the series at the end of the season.
IndyCar Series .
McLaren Honda Andretti (2017) Before the
2017 Australian Grand Prix, Zak Brown said to Alonso they should enter the
2017 Indianapolis 500 to which Alonso suggested he was joking. The idea later re-emerged in a conversation in Los Angeles, when Alonso told Brown he was happy with the idea since McLaren had won it before. He and his manager Garcia Abad met Brown and Éric Boullier in China to talk more about the plan and said he would decide the next day. Alonso told Brown he wanted to race at Indianapolis and told him it was "a good decision for everyone: a win, win for myself, for F1, the fans, everyone'." Brown then spoke to the
IndyCar Series chief executive officer Mark Miles and discovered that there were no Honda-powered cars. Miles met the
Andretti Autosport owner
Michael Andretti, who got driver
Stefan Wilson to agree to forego his planned entry in partnership with
Michael Shank Racing and allow Alonso to drive instead. Driving the No. 29 McLaren-Honda-Andretti
Dallara DW12, Alonso completed a three-stage rookie orientation programme at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 3 May. Alonso advanced to the Fast Nine shootout in qualifying and set the fifth-fastest four-lap average speed; Alonso was classified 24th.
McLaren Racing (2019) McLaren began planning an entry for him in the
2019 IndyCar Series in August 2018 and would be supported by the series. Alonso tested a 2018-specification Andretti Autosport-entered Dallara DW12-Honda at the
Barber Motorsports Park on 5 September. McLaren opted to enter just the
2019 Indianapolis 500 due to its focus on Formula One and collaborated with
Carlin Motorsport in a logistical and technical partnership and signed an engine supply deal with
Chevrolet. Alonso ventured to the McLaren Technology Centre in early March 2019 for a seat fitting to become comfortable in the No. 66 Dallara IR18-Chevrolet and its brake pedal was shifted away from his feet since it is used less in IndyCar than in Formula One.
Andy Brown was Alonso's race engineer and his chief mechanic was Liam Dance. Alonso did not qualify after
Juncos Racing's
Kyle Kaiser demoted him to 34th. Reasons included a dismantled spare car needed to assembled and flown from Carlin's factory after Alonso crashed in practice. An error converting from the
American imperial system to the
British metric system caused his car to scrape along the tarmac surface and incorrect gear ratios slowed him.
Arrow McLaren SP (2020) Alonso entered the
2020 Indianapolis 500 with
Arrow McLaren SP after an agreement with Andretti Autosports fell through. He had a crash during practice and qualified 26th. He did manage to finish the race. He started 26th, was running fifteenth halfway through the race, and then ended up 21st and one lap down because of a clutch issue causing the team to manually start the car during every pit stop.
Off-road racing Alonso entered the
Dakar Rally with Toyota in
2020 following a five-month testing programme in Africa, Europe and the Middle East and driving a series of races to better himself. He raced in the Lichtenburg 400 in South Africa, the
Rally du Maroc in Morocco and the Al Ula–Neom Rally in Saudi Arabia, with the five-time Dakar Rally bike class winner
Marc Coma his co-driver. Alonso was third at the Al Ula-Neom Rally, which was his highest finish in three preparation events. With co-driver Coma, he finished the Dakar in thirteenth position with a best stage finish of second place. A stop for repairs on the second stage and a roll on the tenth lost him several hours in the general classification. ==Driving style==