Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso will make F1 history in Singapore when he lines up on the Marina Bay grid for his 350th start – surpassing Kimi Raikkonen as the outright ...

He was at the time he was winning with Renault and I think he is today. I think that was the beginning of Fernando’s sheer determination to go and show what he could do. “Fernando was stuck in the pit box the whole time because of mechanical issues, but they managed to get his car out for one run at the end of the day. “I think he is the best driver in the world. I was in a team principals’ meeting and he and his race engineer couldn’t agree, and the race engineer put more fuel in the car. I think the most impressive thing was that he could be fast for 100% of the race, and it’s rare to see drivers who can do that.” It was one of his best qualities, that even if the balance was not good he could manage to be fast in adapting his driving style, and you don’t [often] see that around [with other drivers]. Alongside Alonso for the most part of his debut season was Tarso Marques, who had already competed for Minardi in 1996 and 1997. “Throughout that year, Fernando proved time and time again that he could put an uncompetitive car in a competitive position. “Once Fernando got into the pit lane and out of the car, everyone was hugging him and grabbing him, and they were just elated that he’d managed to achieve that. We had a very short timeframe to put the whole team together, which was six weeks and three days from when I acquired it to when we had to fly to Melbourne [for the first race]. Indeed, manager Flavio Briatore agreed to let Minardi run Alonso for his debut F1 campaign, ahead of a planned promotion to the Benetton-Renault team run by the Italian.