Alonso posts brilliant throwback video on Instagram

Fernando Alonso retired from F1 at the end of last season, after spending almost two decades in the sport. He started out in 2001, when he drove for Minardi, and impressed manager, Flavio Briatore, enough to sign him for Renault in 2002, though he graduated to a race seat with them only in 2003, in place of Jenson Button.

During his long stint in F1, Alonso raced in three different engine eras. He started out with the crowd favourite V10’s, which made the most noise but was also synonymous with F1 fans as the sound of the sport. Clearly, Alonso missed that era as he posted an Instagram video from the 2004 Italian Grand Prix weekend, the last year when V10’s were used.

Check out his Insta post here:

The caption, which is in Spanish, roughly translates to, “No words required. Simply turn up the volume”. In 2005, F1 shifted to V8 engines to keep costs down. Ironically, Alonso won both his world titles in the V8 era, in 2005 and 2006, with a dominant Renault, beating Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. The tyre supplier change from Bridgestone to Michelin also played a part in his victories.

He stayed around long enough to also drive in the hybrid V6 engine era, which came into force in 2014, which kick-started another period of dominance, albeit for the Mercedes team. They have won every drivers’ and constructors’ title since then, akin to the Ferrari era we saw from 2000-2004.

Alonso enjoyed a memorable send off at the season’s last race in Abu Dhabi, performing a series of donuts with fellow world champions, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. You can watch that video here.

In fact, the Spaniard also cheekily cut the chicane for three consecutive laps, in an attempt to cut down the deficit to the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who was running in tenth, the last points-scoring position, knowing fully well that any penalties won’t affect him.