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World Championships: 2
Wins: 32
Podiums: 97
A career with such staggering numbers and still something doesn't add up. It feels a bit underwhelming for a force of nature that is (was?) Fernando Alonso.
Alonso's career, after the early success of twin championships with Renault, has become a bits and pieces tale of what it could have been.
A career which has been tottering around the backmarkers for the last 4 years should have really achieved more. Let's take a look back at 5 of the biggest "what-ifs that defined Fernando Alonso's career in Formula One.
#1 What if the Ferrari engine hadn't failed in Japan 06
So let's start with something positive. Something that effectively handed Fernando Alonso his second title in Formula One. Going into the penultimate race of the season, Michael Schumacher was leading the championship, ahead of Fernando Alonso.
The German started on pole and was leading the race when all of a sudden the Ferrari engine failed (strangely the first engine failure in so many years for the Italian giants) effectively handing Alonso the lead in the race and making the last race almost academic as there wasn't enough time left for Schumacher to overhaul Alonso's advantage.
Although many hardcore Alonso fans wouldn't want to put this down to luck citing Alonso's retirement in Monza if one looks at the circumstances and the situation in which this engine failure happened it left Schumacher and Ferrari with no chance to come back and sealed the title for Alonso.
But what if Alonso hadn't won the title in 06? Would he be just a one-time WDC? or would it have brought him back to the ground and maybe made him more determined against a certain rookie's challenge next season?
#2 What if he had not lost his head and left Mclaren in 2007?
Youngest two-time World Champion, Schumacher out of the picture, pretty much the undisputed best driver on the grid. Walking into a new team, as a de-facto team leader, it seemed like Alonso took things too much to his head.
When a rookie teammate started competing with him, and in some ways, crossed the line by jumping him during qualifying in Hungary, Alonso just lost it and impeded Hamilton in the subsequent segment of qualifying.
As the details of the incident came out later, Alonso threatened Mclaren to sabotage Lewis' race or else he would make public the details of the Spygate.
For most of the season, Alonso appeared, what could be best described as a shadow of himself, and despite that, he ended the season level on points with Lewis.
Had he not fallen out with Mclaren and not ran off to Renault he might have been able to snatch the 07' and 08' titles but Alonso let things get to his head and paid heavily for it.
#3 What if he had taken up the offer from Red Bull or Brawn?
One would have to be a very staunch critic of Alonso to blame him for not picking up on the offers for seats at Honda (which became Brawn GP in future) and Red Bull Racing in the 2008 season and go to Ferrari instead.
But then one would even have to dig deeper to understand why both of those offers were very competitive. In Honda, they had a legend named Ross Brawn who headed the team and was one of the most important members of the dream team that help Michael Schumacher win five titles.
At Red Bull Racing, a new signing was already made by the name of Adrian Newey who had been responsible for building some of the fastest cars in the Formula One History.
As hindsight proves, both of them were able to propel their teams to Championships while Ferrari still struggles to get a hold of a single one.
The question always remains, what if Alonso had gone for either of those two? What legacy would he have been able to build?
#4 What if Alonso had overtaken Petrov in Abu Dhabi in 2010?
This was pretty much the time when things really started to unravel for Alonso. Going into the last race of the season leading the championship, everything seemed settled and going his way. But when Alonso pitted earlier to cover Mark Webber (his immediate challenger in the championship) he got stuck behind Petrov in a Renault.
The equation was simple: If Alonso had to win the championship he had to overtake Petrov as the current classification gifted Vettel the championship.
The whole race was a narrative of Alonso making innumerable attempts to pass Petrov but not being able to do so. In hindsight, maybe a lunge down the inside or an adventurous move might have done it for him, but it's easier said than done and Petrov was able to hold off Alonso for the whole race and Vettel was able to take the championship.
#5 What if Alonso had not left Ferrari at the end of 2014?
After 5 years of failing to achieve his dream of winning a title with Ferrari, Alonso's patience was wearing thin. On a yearly basis, Ferrari had become less and less competitive which further fueled Alonso's frustration.
It was a premature decision in many ways to move to Mclaren. Mclaren Honda was a brand new assignment. They had the money and the resources but did they have the expertise? Noone really knew.
Alonso, like many on the grid, bought the hype surrounding a Mclaren Honda partnership and left Ferrari to sign up with Mclaren to start something fresh.
Consequently, as soon as Alonso left Ferrari and joined Mclaren there has been a stark contrast in the fortunes of the two teams with McLaren plummeting down the order while Ferrari making one bigger stride after the other and twice competing for championships.
Many even made predictions it being an Alonso win had it been him driving that Ferrari in place of Vettel in the last two years.
What if he had kept the faith? He might not even be leaving Formula One today slightly grumpy, slightly disgruntled.
