Fernando Alonso: The Ferrari years in pictures

2014 F1 season review

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There was a time when it seemed we might never see Fernando Alonso in the overalls of a Formula One team that wasn’t Ferrari.

The relationship between the two began with a victory and very nearly ended with a championship triumph in 2010. The following year Alonso inked a long-term deal with the team.

However four years of being eclipsed by Red Bull put a strain on the partnership, and their hugely disappointing 2014 campaign finally fractured it. Alonso has returned to McLaren in the hope of finally taking a third world championship with Honda power.

But although they fell short of their ultimate goal, Alonso nonetheless took 11 wins and 44 podium finishes with Ferrari. Here’s a look back on his five-year stint with the Scuderia.

2010: A winning start

Ferrari moved Kimi Raikkonen aside at the end of 2009 to make way for Alonso. Like his predecessor, Alonso won his first race with the team. A second win followed amid controversy at the Hockenheimring, where team mate Felipe Massa was ordered to move aside.

This marked the beginning of Alonso’s most competitive spell at Ferrari. Further wins in Italy, Singapore and South Korea put the title within his grasp.

But it all went wrong at the final race, where Alonso was one of four drivers in the hunt for the title. Preoccupied with keeping Mark Webber behind, he inadvertently allowed Sebastian Vettel to get far enough ahead of him to claim the victory and the title.

2011: Just one win

Red Bull dominated the 2011 season with their RB7, a car which exploited the potential of blowing exhaust gases into the diffuser. Alonso’s sole win came at the only race that year where the practice was curtailed, at Silverstone. But Vettel ran away with a second title.

2012: So close

Ferrari were well off the pace at the beginning of 2012, but a stunning win by Alonso in a damp Malaysian Grand Prix formed the basis of an unlikely championship bid. Valencia was another highlight, as he raced from 11th on the grid to win.

But Red Bull came on strong towards the end of the year. Although Alonso arrived at the final race still able to win the title, Vettel clung on to win for the third year in a row.

2013: The last wins

Two wins in the first five races indicated this might finally be Alonso’s year. But those proved his most recent victories to date.

Vettel and Red Bull destroyed their rivals in the second half of the year, his nine consecutive wins meaning the championship outcome was never in doubt. Though still contracted to Ferrari for three more years, Alonso made his first contact with McLaren about a potential return.

2014: A difficult year

The switch to new 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids did not go well for Ferrari, whose power unit proved the least competitive of F1’s three engine manufacturers. The F14 T failed to win a race all year, and Alonso made just two visits to the podium.

Before the season was over, he had agreed to an astonishing return to McLaren, the team he departed amid acrimony in 2007.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Fernando Alonso: The Ferrari years in pictures”

  1. 1 competitive car in 5 years, let’s hope for Seb the ratio will be better in the following years.

  2. I’m going to miss the Ferrari years of Fernando, but if he is swapping them for another shot at winning the driver’s championship then I won’t be too upset!

  3. Love this picture, Alonso’s head being turned towards Schumacher makes it even better.

    1. @andae23 I also love the relative simplicity of the front wings from 09 through to this 2011 pic.

    2. Good call; I agree.

    3. @andae23 incredibly pretty cars by today stardards aswell.

  4. i am not really sure alonso made first contact with mclaren, its known for long time that mclaren were publicly pursuing alonso, whitmarsh has made his intentions clear many times.

  5. Ferrari really let Alonso down in their period together. Only 11 wins, some not even on merit (others retired) surely isn’t what Alonso expected. Let’s hope he will have a more successful time at Mclaren. Although he certainly isn’t my favorite driver, I do think he deserves an awful lot better then the cars he has driven.

  6. Ferrari failed him and wasted his talent, just like McLaren wasted Kimi’s talent from 2002-2006.

    1. Absolutely, agree 100%. Alonso was at the peak of his powers at Ferrari. They couldn’t give him a half decent car in 5 years. @kingshark

  7. How time flies, but nevertheless Alonso did thrill us with many good races during his time in Ferrari. Let’s hope McLaren can give him a winning or at least a fairly decent car allowing him to fight for the WDC.

  8. Fernando should have take RBR offer in 2009, then he will be 6 time world champion

    1. What a mouth watering prospect for an Alonso fan…but he’s made many wrong decisions starting from his McLaren exit at the end of 2007. I was seriously shocked and skeptical when he announced his long term deal with Ferrari in 2011…I seriously though he was mad.

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