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Former Minardi team principal Paul Stoddart has said that he first witnessed Fernando Alonso's greatness during the Spaniard's last race for the team in 2001.
Alonso made his debut with the struggling team in 2001 and immediately impressed with his speed and skill behind the wheel. However, he joined Renault as a test driver the next season.
Speaking to RacingNews365, Stoddart recalled that at the 2001 Japanese GP, he told Alonso to enjoy his final outing with the team:
"If you ever needed a signal of what was to come, his last race for us was Suzuka in 2001. I was in a Team Principal's meeting and for one reason or another, they didn't do (the low-fuel run). The engineers fuelled him, and he was pretty annoyed by it all.
"We had words afterward and I said: 'Fernando it is your last race, go out and enjoy it.' What he did was he went out and drove 53 laps of Suzuka in full qualifying mode, every lap was just different by tyre degradation and fuel load. That just showed you what was to come; the technical brilliance, the ability and the determination."
"He should have been a four-time world champion" - Paul Stoddart hails Fernando Alonso
The Australian businessman said that Fernando Alonso should have won at least four titles. He said about the two-time world champion:
"As he comes up to 100 podiums, he's earned every one of those podiums and been very unlucky to only be a two-time World Champion. He should have been a four-time world champion at least.
"He is one of the greatest drivers of all time, and it shows even now because of his technical ability and determination. If you give Fernando a sniff of something, he will deliver. That Aston Martin at the start of the year is: a) very drivable and b) has good pace, so I'm not surprised at all to see Fernando where he is."
Stoddart added that his dream team as principal of Minardi would have been Fernando Alonso and another F1 great, Mark Webber, saying:
"My dream team as a team owner was to have Mark and Fernando in the same car at the same time."
It would have been fascinating to see Webber and Alonso race alongside each other, as both went on to have amazing battles as rivals.
