Warning: elaborate post with a high degree of fanboyism and sentimentalism! I've been lurking around this forum for years now, I've had an account for a while without posting, but I guess there's no better moment to make my first post than right now. I'll reflect chronologically on his career, but also combine it with my story of growing up (with F1) and make it very personal instead of analytical (and it'll be a longer post 
).
The missing years (2001-2008)
I'm 23 - almost 24 - years old, so for me, Fernando Alonso made his debut in F1 when I was six years old. I've got some vague memories of Häkkinen battling with Schumacher, but aside of that, Alonso has always been there. And even though childhood me had better things to do than watch "some cars race around a track", Alonso was one of the most important sporting figures for my family from the get-go. This meant that I only vaguely saw stuff from 'the good years' and had to rewatch all those great moments later: Hungary 2003, winning the championship twice, battling with Schumacher at Imola 2005, the Monaco 2006 qualifying controversy... the McLaren heartbreak... (The 2001 Minardi and 2003 Renault got slightly damaged in the making of this picture... Currently undergoing repairs 
)
Getting into F1, the Ferrari years & McLaren switch (2009-2015)
It must have been around 2008 when I got interested in F1 and 2010 when I got really passionate about it. Winning a debut race for Ferrari is an amazing feat. In a sense the entire year was quite amazing. Five drivers in contention, all of them with their own stronger and weaker races (think of Silverstone 2010 or Monaco qualifying, for instance). Korea 2010 is definitely a stand-out memory for me in that sense and it made me so confident "it was going to happen". Along came Abu Dhabi. A 15 points lead over Webber. What could go wrong? We all know the answer to that now and it was the first of three major F1 heartbreaks for me as a fan. 2011 was more like a "gap year" with an extremely dominant Red Bull, but for me, Alonso showed his skills in that year anyway, with amazing starts (Spain 2011) and even a victory at Silverstone. There's no season that was as intense for me as 2012. Against all my expectations, he won in Malaysia and he led the championship with quite a margin. After qualifying 11th in Valencia, I must say I gave up all hope for the race, only to be massively surprised the next day. It was a special day, an emotional one, an unforgettable one. It was an inherited win, but just as much deserved thanks to skills. Belgium and Japan 2012 were equally unforgettable in another way, and perhaps those races and the tightening championship were what got me into all the little details in F1 and watching every practice session: who has the advantage in FP2's long runs? What about qualy sims? Etc. Along came Brazil 2012. Undoubtedly the best race I've seen in my life but I'll never want to see it again - it was an emotional rollercoaster and just the image of Fernando's thousand-yard stare still hurts. I guess I was staring similarly at my TV. Perhaps at this point the Alonso-Ferrari relationship was doomed. If even after such a stellar season it was impossible to win, would it be possible at all? The early races in 2013 led to the idea that it might be possible after all, but that hope vanished quickly and the start of the V6-era would prove to be even worse. Hungary was another classic, and he got close to victory, but as a fan, thinking back of 2012 and looking at the performances in 2014 left me very disappointed. A switch to McLaren made me quite happy, initially...
The McLaren years and 'motorsports life' beyond F1 (2015-)
Disaster struck quickly and quite soon even the results in the 2014 Ferrari seemed incredible. Here, we saw the birth of Fernando as a meme / radio king, and even though sometimes the messages hitting the airwaves weren't too tactful ("GP2 Engine"), I think they are a sign of dedication, will to succeed and extract the maximum. The theme of these years for me were, without a doubt, starting hopeful and losing that hope gradually during the season, however, Alonso always kept pushing (even literally: Hungary 2015). At some point, I started looking for the 'smaller victories', like this year's 7th place in Singapore. I felt like that might be his final 'small victory' in F1 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think that in these years, we've seen an Alonso willing to go to great lengths for every point he could get. One thing Fernando has shown to me in these years, perhaps to some parts the F1 watching world too, is that motorsports is bigger than F1. His Indy 500 attempt was an absolute highlight, and so was this year's victory at Le Mans. To me, Fernando is a great introduction to other forms of Motorsports. Ever since the 2017 Indy 500, I've been following IndyCar, with or without Fernando, and the same goes for the WEC, so now I'm a fan of three motorsports. Who knows where he'll turn up in 2019, but after all these years and growing up 'with Alonso', I'll keep on following him and enjoying those motorsports.
My way of thanking Fernando
Aside of this (perhaps too elaborate) post, you can see all home-made paper Alonso cars in the pictures and I've also been quite lucky to have been interviewed by the Dutch F1 magazine for a (large) article as a goodbye to Fernando. Now it's on to race 312, and I'm sure I won't be ready for it, but an 'adiós' for now, will be an 'hola' in other motorsports, and hopefully another 'hola' in an F1 return soon. Who knows, an Indy 500 win in a McLaren-Honda and a successful comeback with Ferrari in 2020? (Highly unlikely - I know - but dreaming never hurts and those would be quite good 'feel-good stories' on many levels). For me, following Alonso in F1 has been a road from barely paying attention to the sport to being extremely passionate about it, and even following three motorsports now. #GraciasFernando, an all-time F1 legend up there with the best.
Edited by McLaren1702, 20 November 2018 - 22:02.
