Ocon Claims He is Alonso's Best Teammate Since Hamilton. But Is He?
In an interview with Motorsport.com Esteban Ocon claimed that he was Alonso's most competitive teammate since the Spaniard teamed with Lewis Hamilton in 2007. This got me thinking, Alonso is about to break the record for the most F1 races ever and he has a career that spans over 2 decades. His list of teammates is a list of the who's who and the who's that of Formula 1 over the past 20 years. Alonso's teammates have a shared 10 World Championships and 166 wins but who out of them really pushed Fernando the most. In this blog we shall break down each of the 2 time world champions teammates to truly decide who is the very best of Alonso's 13 teammates.
Tarso Marques - 2001
Like many upon hearing the name Tarso Marques I said "who is that?" the answer to that question is that he was Fernando Alonso's very first teammate when he join the struggling Minardi team in 2001.
Marques had an interesting career in Formula 1. The Brazilian competed for Minardi in 2 races in the 1996 season retiring from both before returning to Minardi for the second half of the 1997 season where like many Minardi drivers before him he would go pointless. He then took 3 years away from Formula 1 and returned to Minardi for the 2001 season.
The year would not be great for either driver as the Minardi was not competitive at all. During the season opener in Australia Marques was not able to set a time within the 107% mark in any sessions all weekend. Marques would continue to have qualifying woes throughout the season and at the Spanish Grand Prix Alonso would out qualify him by 1.5 seconds. It wasn't a complete whitewash for Alonso in qualifying though as Marques was able to beat Alonso twice in the 14 races they had as teammates.
When it came to the actual races the Minardi seemed to be addicted to mechanical issues with both cars only finishing the race 2 times. Of those 2 times Alonso was the lead car both times. Although Marques was able to achieve the higher finishing position over the year with a 9th place twice which in 2001 would give him 0 points to Alonso's best finish of 10 which he achieved once.
During their time together race results went 6-4 for Alonso and Qualifying was 12-2 to Alonso and Marques would be dropped from the team with 3 races remaining.
Race Record 6-4 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 12-2 to Alonso
Points 0-0 Draw
Alex Yoong - 2001
This was a driver pairing that's time together was so short that I cant actually find a photo of the two of them together. Just before the Belgian Grand Prix it was announced that Malaysian driver Alex Yoong would replace Marques for the final 3 races of the season becoming the first ever Malaysian Formula 1 driver.
Of their 3 races together Yoong would only finish 1 in 16th to Alonso's 11th and would be out qualified in all of the races.
Yoong would continue with Minardi for the 2002 season whereas Alonso would not have a full time drive for the next season.
Race Record 3-0 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 3-0 to Alonso
Points 0-0 Draw
Jarno Trulli 2003 - 2004
Fernando would return to the Formula 1 grid full time with the Renault team in 2003 after spending 2002 as a test driver with the team. Trulli had just come off a relatively successful 2002 which saw him and teammate Jenson Button achieve 4th in the constructors championship for the Renault team.
2003 was the breakout year for Alonso. Scoring points in the season opener with a 7th place, Alonso would follow this up with his first pole position becoming the youngest person to ever accomplish this at that time. He would then get his first podium finishing 3rd in the second race of the season in Malaysia then scored a back to back podium with another 3rd in Brazil before getting his first win in Hungary towards the end of the year.
Qualifying was a more even split with the final result being 8-8 between the drivers although Alonso would get 2 poles to Trulli's 0. The team finished the 2003 season in 4th with 88 points, 55 scored by Alonso and 33 scored by Trulli
The 2004 season would go very differently out of the first 10 races Trulli beat Alonso in 7 of them including at the Monaco Grand Prix where Trulli would get the only win of his career and the only win for the Renault team that year. But Trulli's relationship within the team deteriorated massively in this year. With Trulli making accusations of favoritism and his lack of pace in the second half of the season where he would be unable to score any points in 5 races whilst Alonso scored 2 podiums. Trulli was fired from the team before the end of the season.
During their time as teammates during the 2004 season Trulli would actually outscore Alonso scoring 46 points to Alonso's 45 but even this would not be enough to save his seat and he would join the Toyota team for the final 2 races of the season.
Race Record 15-14 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 16-15 to Trulli
Points 100-79 to Alonso
Jacques Villeneuve - 2004
Renault would finish the year 3rd in the constructors championship. Alonso would stay with Renault while Villeneuve would go to Sauber
Race Record 3-0 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 2-1 to Alonso
Points 15-0 to Alonso
Giancarlo Fisichella - 2005-2006
Fisichella would join the Renault team for the 2005 season. He had previously spend 4 years at the Enstone team between 1997 and 2001 during their time as Benetton and after a strong 2004 season for Sauber, Renault team boss Flavio Briatore decided to bring him back to the team. Fisichella brought a lot of experience to the team as he entered his 10th season on the Formula 1 grid which had brought him 8 podiums and a win at the chaotic 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix whilst driving for Jordan in a race where his car would end the race on fire but due to a red flag and count back Fisichella was awarded the race win although this decision was not made till 5 days after the race had ended so Fisichella did not get to stand on the top step of the podium and was given the winners trophy by Kimi Raikkonen on the grid of the next race at Imola after Kimi had been falsely given the win.
It would be a strong start to the year for Giancarlo winning the season opener and becoming the championship leader and actually getting to stand on the top step of the podium this time while Alonso would come home in third for a double podium meaning Renault topped both championships after the first race. But Fisichella would retire from the next 3 races whilst Alonso would win all of them. Meaning after 4 races Alonso would be the championship leader whilst Fisi would be 4th.
Over the rest of the season Alonso would win 4 more races whilst Fisi would only be able to achieve 2 more podiums. Alonso would finish the year as world champion becoming the youngest driver to be world champion at that time and ending Ferrari and Michael Schumacher's 5 year domination of the championship. Whilst Fisichella would finish the year 5th in the standings he would bring home enough points to give Renault the constructors world championship beating Mclaren by 9 points.
For the 2006 season Fisichella would have a mixed start retiring from the first race but winning the second race in Malaysia. This win would be his last in Formula 1 and as of writing is the last race win for any Italian in Formula 1. Over the first 9 races Fisi would get on the podium twice where as Alonso was on the podium for all of them. Getting 6 wins and 3 2nd place finishes. The year was not without controversy for the Renault team. The mass damper was used on the Renault R26 in order to keep the car more stable over kerbs and through the corners. Renault had introduced this on their 2005 car and it was deemed legal by the stewards However halfway through the 2006 season when Renault had built a lead over rivals Ferrari the FIA then decided to ban it. This very much hurt the Renault team who had built their car around the mass damper. Of the 7 races after the banning of the mass damper Ferrari would win 5.
Going into the penultimate race in Japan Alonso and Schumacher would be on equal points. The Ferrari's would lock out the front row whilst the 2 Renaults would qualify 5th and 6th also being beaten by the 2 Toyotas one being driven by Alonso's former teammate Jarno Trulli. During the race Alonso chased down Schumacher and as they battled for the lead Schumacher would suffer his first engine failure in 6 years giving Alonso the win and meaning Fernando would only have to score 1 point in the final race to become back to back world champion. Fernando would finish the final race of the season in 2nd securing the championship whilst Fisi would finish 6th. The 2006 season would be the last championship (so far) for both Alonso and the Enstone team.
Over the course of the season Fisichella was only able to get 5 podiums with 1 win and 4 third places compared to Alonso's 7 wins and 14 podiums without ever finishing third. Whilst Fernando was world champion Fisi would have to settle for 4th in the championship behind the Ferrari's of Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher. Fisichella would stay with the Renault team for the 2007 season whilst Alonso decided to try and look for success elsewhere.
Race Record 28-6 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 26-11 to Alonso
Points 267-130 to Alonso
Lewis Hamilton - 2007
It turned out this rookie was pretty good and out of his first 10 races he secured 9 podiums including 3 race wins. Alonso had also had 3 race wins but only 7 podiums. The 2007 season saw the biggest rivalry between Alonso and a teammate to this point as both battled for the championship. The rival boiled over during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix where Hamilton disobeyed a team order in order to not help Alonso. Fernando then retaliated by blocking Lewis in the pit lane.
Despite having arguably the faster car neither McLaren driver would win the world championship. The title that year went to Raikkonen who massively benefited from the Mclaren infighting and won the title by 1 point. Fernando and Lewis ended the year on equal points but Lewis got 2nd place in the championship as both had the same amount of wins but Lewis had more 2nd places. But at least McLaren won the constructors championship right?
So, it turned out the 2007 Mclaren may be the most illegal car to ever race in Formula 1. Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney joined McLaren in 2007 and he brought a lot of very important technical data with him too. Due to this McLaren were handed a $100 million fine which still to this day is the largest fine in sporting history, they were disqualified from the constructors championship and Stepney was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison, although he would eventually get a plea deal which saw him stay out of prison. So no McLaren did not win the 2007 constructors championship.
By the end of 2007 the relationship between Alonso and McLaren was in a very bad place. He had signed a 3 year deal but after multiple arguments over the season between Alonso and McLaren management they mutually decided to end Alonso's contract early on one condition Alonso would not be allowed to sign for any of McLaren's direct rivals for the 2008 season. So with this knowledge Alonso decided to return home to Renault for the 2008 season where there would be absolutely no controversy with his teammate at all. Right?
Race Record 10-7 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 9-8 to Hamilton
Points 109-109 Draw
Nelson Piquet Jr. - 2008-2009
For the 2008 season Fernando would have another rookie teammate. This time Nelson Piquet Jr, son of 3 time world champion Nelson Piquet. Piquet had been the test driver for Renault during the 2007 season and got the call up for the 2008 season. So was Piquet as good as Hamilton? In a word, no. While the Renault was nowhere near as competitive as the previous years McLaren (although it was a lot more legal) Piquet still struggled to compete with Alonso. Piquet would go pointless in the first 7 races including 5 DNF's most of which would come from crashes. Alonso would spend most of the year chasing the podium finishing 4th 4 times in the first 14 races.
Qualifying would also not be a success for Piquet this year as Alonso completed a clean sweep on his teammate beating him in qualifying in all 18 races.
Although the first podium would actual belong to Piquet who finished 2nd at Silverstone. Alonso would get his first podium of the year with a win at Singapore where Piquet would mysteriously crash. Alonso would follow this up with another win in Japan and then a 2nd place at the final race of the year.
Alonso would finish the year in 5th place in championship where as Piquet would be 12th with Alonso scoring more than 3 times the amount of points Piquet had scored. Renault would finish 3rd in the constructors championship.
2008 had been disappointing for Renault but they were hoping to hop on the back of the momentum Alonso created at the end of 2008 to propel them into 2009 where they could be a serious contender for the championships. Unfortunately this did not happen.
There was a lot of pressure on Piquet for the 2009 season after his very disappointing 2008. Piquet did not deal well with this pressure especially in a car that was a lot worse than the one he had had in 2008. After the first 10 races Alonso had only manages to score 13 points and Piquet had scored 0. So Piquet met the fate that many of Alonso's teammates had before him, being dropped before the end of the season. Piquet accepted his fate and quietly disappeared into the background. Oh wait! No he didn't. He went mental!
Piquet would label Flavio Briatore as the executioner and say that he had always favoured Fernando Alonso over him but that would be nothing in comparison to what he said next. Piquet revealed that his crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix when Alonso won had all been a plan by Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds to bring out a safety car in the race to allow Alonso to win. The FIA would investigate this and ended up banning Briatore from all FIA sanctioned events and giving Symonds a 5 year ban. Fernando was cleared of all wrongdoing as they were not able to find any evidence that Alonso or his mechanics had any knowledge of the plan. As a result of this Renault would lose their 2 main sponsors ING and Mutua Madrukeba.
Despite being given blanket immunity for 'crashgate' Piquet would never race in Formula 1 again but he would become the first ever Formula E champion in 2015 so i guess its not too much of a sad ending.
Race Record 21-5 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 27-1 to Alonso
Points 74-19 to Alonso
Romain Grosjean - 2009
Renault would turn to Frenchman Romain Grosjean to fill the Piquet sized hole in the 2009 Renault line up. Grosjean had been the test driver for Renault up to this point and made his Formula 1 debut at the European Grand Prix of 2009. Grosjean's season would go in a very similar way to how Piquet's had. In the 7 races remaining in the season he would fail to score any points whilst Alonso would finally find his way to the podium for the first time all year in Singapore of all places.
Renault would end the year in a very disappointing 8th place in the constructors championship with all points scored that year coming from Alonso. Fernando would finish the year 9th in the championship,his worst result since his debut season in the Minardi.
Grosjean would not be retained by Renault for the 2010 season and would have to wait until 2012 to return to Formula 1 with the Enstone team which would then be called Lotus. Alonso on the other hand would be back on the grid in 2010 but this time he would be wearing red.
Race Record 5-1 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 7-0 to Alonso
Points 13-0 to Alonso
Felipe Massa 2010-2013
For the 2010 season Alonso would join the legendary Ferrari team teaming with Felipe Massa. This would be the 5th season with the Scuderia for Massa who was returning after missing the final half of the 2009 season due to a high speed crash that had occurred after a spring had fallen out the back of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn car and hit Massa on the head knocking him out. Massa had a titanium plate inserted into his skull and was able to make a full recovery.
Massa was all too familiar with tough teammates as he had teamed with Michael Schumacher in 2006 and with Kimi Raikkonen from 2007 to 2009 beating Kimi in the 2008 season. Felipe would also become the longest reigning teammate for Alonso at 4 seasons.
The 2010 season would get off to a strong start for Ferrari with a 1-2 finish with Alonso taking the win. Massa would then beat Alonso in the second race of the season finishing 3rd to Alonso's 4th. The 2 would go back and to for most of the first half of the season until Massa hit a run of bad results finishing pointless for 3 races in a row. Although Massa would be going well at the German Grand Prix. It had been a while since there was a Alonso teammate controversy so it time for another. Massa was leading the race but at this point but Alonso was Ferrari's only real title hope in the close battle with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. So Massa received the now iconic message "Fernando is faster that you. Can you confirm you got this message?" Massa then slowed down, Alonso passed him and went on to win the race. At this time team orders were completely banned in Formula 1 and a message this blatant got Ferrari into trouble who received a $100,000 fine but the race win for Alonso was allowed to stand
For the second half of the season Alonso would turn his performances up to another level taking to the podium in 7 of he last 9 races including 4 wins to Massa's 3 podiums. Due to this Alonso would go into the final race of the season as the championship leader needing only to finish 2nd to secure the championship and if outside favorite Sebastian Vettel was to win the race all Alonso would have to do is finish 4th to be world champion for the third time. During the race Ferrari decided not to bring Alonso in to pit during the safety car period and when he did eventually pit he would get stuck behind Vitaly Petrov. Alonso's Ferrari engine had much reduced horsepower due to this being the 5th race in a row it had been used and he was unable to pass Petrov. Alonso would finish the race in 7th with Vettel winning and being crowned to world champion.
Alonso would finish the year 2nd in the championship 4 points behind Vettel where as Massa would finish the year 6th over 100 points behind his teammate. As much as they had been close in the first half of the season Massa was not able to come close to the success Alonso achieved in the second half. Ferrari would finish 3rd in the constructors championship despite Alonso having the second most points of anyone, Massa's performances meant Ferrari were not able to compete with consistent Hamilton and Button of McLaren and the constructors champions Vettel and Webber of Red Bull.
Alonso would finish the year 4th in the championship with Massa 6th but yet again over 100 points behind his teammate. Ferrari would finish the year 3rd in the championship 122 points behind 2nd place McLaren and 275 points behind constructors champions Red Bull.
The 2012 season for many will go down as the greatest season in Fernando Alonso's career. Ferrari had produced a car that had incredible handling problems where it would understeer whilst going into a corner and then oversteer whilst coming out of the corner but even this would not be enough to stop Fernando Alonso who was on a mission this year. Alonso finished 5th in the season opener and then followed this up with a win at Malaysia whilst Massa would go pointless for the first 3 races. Alonso managed to stay consistent scoring 5 podiums in 6 races between the Spanish and German Grand Prix and left the German Grand Prix with a 34 point lead in the championship over 2nd place Mark Webber. Meanwhile Massa had only been able to score in 4 of the first 10 races. Alonso's win at the German Grand Prix would be his last of the season but he would stay incredibly consistent out of the last 8 races finishing on the podium 6 times with the 2 times he didn't being due to lap 1 collisions out of his control. One of the collisions begin the famous Spa crash where Grosjean shot over the top of Alonso and the other being when Kimi Raikkonen went into the back of him at the Japanese Grand Prix. It also did not help that eventual title rival Sebastian Vettel would finish on the podium at both of these races winning the Japanese Grand Prix. Meanwhile Massa had only achieved 1 podium all year to that point.
Alonso would enter the final race of the season trailing Vettel by 13 points. All Vettel would need to do is finish 4th to secure the championship. In a hectic race that saw Vettel spin on the first lap sending him to the back of the grid with sidepod damage. Alonso managed to get to second place but was not able to match the speed of race leader Jenson Button. Vettel would need to finish 6th to win the title. Vettel managed to battle through the grid before pulling up behind 6th place which was occupied by 7 time world champion and Vettel's childhood hero Michael Schumacher. In what was his final race Schumacher moved aside and gave Vettel 6th securing Seb's third world title and making Alonso the championship runner up for the 2nd time in 3 years. After the race Alonso would say that 2012 was the best season of his career and saying "I didn't win the title, but I won so much respect from everybody."
Massa would finish the season 7th in the standings and for the 3rd year in a row was outscored by more than 100 points by Alonso although he did get his second podium of the year at the final race in Brasil. Ferrari would finish 2nd in the constructors championship 60 points behind the Red Bull's.
In the 2013 season it appeared that initially Ferrari had a very competitive car for Alonso with him taking 2 wins and 5 podiums in the first 8 races but this year the championship was never meant to be for Alonso. With Vettel equaling Michael Schumacher's record for most wins in a season with 13 and setting a new record of 9 race wins in a row Ferrari and Alonso never really stood a chance and Alonso would finish 2nd yet again. But what of Felipe Massa? Alonso was able to get 9 podiums across the season including his 2 wins from the early point of the season. Meanwhile Massa was only good enough for 1 3rd place all season and finishing over 100 points behind Alonso for the 4th year in a row this would signal the end of Massa's time are Ferrari just after the Italian Grand Prix it was announced that Massa would be leaving the team at the end of the year. Massa would join the Williams team where he would stay for the remaining years of his career.
Race Record 64-12 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 58-18 to Alonso
Points 1029-496 to Alonso
Kimi Raikkonen - 2014
On paper the team of Alonso and Raikkonen is genius. Raikkonen was Ferrari's last world champion and Alonso had just dominated the team for the last 4 years. Kimi had spent the last 2 years at Lotus (formerly Alonso's Renault team) getting 2 wins out of a car that shouldn't really of been getting wins. But championships are not won on paper and Kimi was not a competitive teammate, mix this in with the Ferrari not being competitive either and all this leads to a very unhappy Fernando.
Fernando would beat Kimi for the first 11 races in a row including getting 2 podiums to Kimi's 0. Kimi would only be able to beat Alonso on track once all season at Spa. Qualifying did not go well for the iceman either as Alonso beat him 16 times in a 19 race season on average beating Kimi by over half a second. Ferrari would not get any wins during the 2014 season this is the first time this had happened since 1993.
Alonso would finish the season 6th while Kimi would be 12th and Alonso would make it 5 years in a row for beating his teammate by over 100 points. Ferrari would finish the year 4th in the standings shockingly looking back now they were beaten by Williams who finished that year in 3rd place. Ironically this was the closest Alonso and Massa would finish to each other in 5 years as Alonso only beat Massa 27 points.
Contract negotiations between Alonso and Ferrari fell through during the 2014 season and it was announced that after 5 years Alonso would leave the team in hindsight the career move he made next may go down as one of the worst in the history of Formula 1 as Fernando returned to McLaren because that went so well the first time.
Race Record 15-3 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 16-2 to Alonso
Points 161-55 to Alonso
Jenson Button 2015-2016
The McLaren MP4-30 was awful and is the worst car in the history of McLaren. Honda returned to McLaren for the first time since 1992 looking to recapture the iconic results of the McLaren Honda's that won championships for Senna and Prost in the late 80's and early 90's it was a beautiful story that turned into the plot of a horror film. The horror started at pre season testing where the car suffered multiple engine failures and the test ended with McLaren completed the least amount of mileage but even worse than that they ended the test with a driver in hospital as a steering failure caused Alonso to crash and saw him hospitalized with a concussion and sidelined for the remainder of the test and the first race of the year.
Alonso would be replaced by 2014 McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen although Button and Magnussen probably wished it was them who was missing the first race. McLaren qualified 17th and 18th with Button as the lead driver only beating the two Marussia cars who failed to set a time. In the race Magnussen broke down on the lap to the grid due to an engine failure and Button would finish the race in 11th which may seem like a good result until you realize that every driver he beat didn't finish and he was the only driver to be lapped twice.
Alonso would return for the second race of the year in Malaysia where the McLarens would qualify 17th and 18th Button as the lead driver again and once again only beating the Marussia cars one who didn't set a time and the other who's time was so slow he didn't make the 107% time. In the race Alonso would retire on the 20th lap with an engine failure with Button following suit on the 40th lap. To make matters worse Sebastian Vettel, Alonso's rival of the past 5 years and his replacement at Ferrari won the race. Qualifying in China would be the same as the last 2 races for McLaren but both drivers would actually finish the race Alonso in 12th and Button in 13th that was changed to 14th after a 5 second penalty for a collision with Pastor Maldonado. In Bahrain Jenson Button's car had issues throughout practice before breaking down on the out lap in qualifying. Button had to visit the stewards in order to be able to compete in the race despite not setting a lap time in Qualifying. The stewards allowed him to take part in the race but then an electrical issue meant the car wasn't even able to leave the pits. Alonso qualified a season best of 14th and somehow was able to finish 11th even beating 6 cars on pace. Things may have finally looking up for Alonso's season at McLaren!
Fernando did not finish the next 4 races his longest streak of DNF's ever. a brakes issue in Spain, a gearbox issue in Monaco, an exhaust issue in Canada and Kimi Raikkonen crashing into him on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix Alonso was still yet to score a point approaching the halfway point of the season. Meanwhile Button had been able to get McLaren onto the scoreboard with a 8th place finish in Monaco from starting 12th on the grid. Alonso would then go on a mini streak of points with a 10th at Silverstone then miraculously both cars scored points at Hungary Button finishing 9th and Alonso finishing an amazing 5th. Things seemed to be going well but this would be Alonso's last points of the year with the remaining 9 races his highest position being 11th. Jenson would score points 2 more times in Russia with a 9th and a great 6th in the USA Grand Prix.
McLaren would score 27 points in the 2015 season Alonso scoring 11 points and Button scoring 16 meaning that for the first time ever Alonso had been out scored by a teammate. Giving Jenson Button the distinction of being the only person to ever beat Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the same car. The 2015 season would be the worst for McLaren (if point scoring is adjusted to the same as the 2015 season) it would be the worst year for Button since 2008 when he last drove with Honda and it was the worst year for Alonso since 2001 with Minardi. It could only get better.
Reliability of the 2016 McLaren Honda seemed much better than the 2015 version but it would not get off to a good start with Alonso suffering from an almighty crash in the season opener in Australia whilst Button finish 14th. Alonso would miss the second race of the season whilst recovering from his crash. Jenson would retire from the race on lap 6 with a ERS failure whilst stand in Stoffel Vandoorne would score McLaren's first point of the season in 10th. Alonso would return in China where both cars would finish out of the points. Then Fernando would score points in 2 of the next 3 races including a season high of 5th whilst Button scored in all 3 races with a highest position of 9th. Over the next 10 races Alonso would finish 7th 4 times retire once and finish out of the points 5 times. In those same races Jenson would finish in the points 3 times retire 4 and finish out of the points 3 times. Jenson would manage to qualify 3rd in Austria due to the penalties of Rosberg and Vettel which would be the highest qualifying position of this era of McLaren Honda. He would finish the race in 6th.
By the halfway point of the season Button was checked out of Formula 1 and had made his decision to retire at the end of the season. he would have 2 more points scoring races both 9th place before retiring from the final race of the year and the final race of his full time career with a suspension failure on lap 12 before appearing in a very drunk interview after the race in his happiest post race interview in 2 year. In the races following Button's decision to retire Alonso would equal his season high of 5th as well as finish 10th twice and finishing out of the points twice.
McLaren would finish 6th in the standings with 76 points a vast improvement from the 2015 season. Alonso would score 54 points to Button's 21.
This team paring was massively let down by the cars it was given. 2 of the best drivers of their era forming a dream line up which would never get the recognition it deserved as the car just wasn't there. In an interview in 2019 Alonso would proclaim Jenson Button as his greatest ever teammate saying "He is very fast. He is very competitive inside the car, always and in all conditions, but outside the car as well he is a very nice guy, a true gentleman, and also very committed to the sport. He's always running in the simulator, working with the team, spending whatever time is necessary with the engineers, being 100 per cent physically all year long. As a package I think he's the best."
Race Record 17-15 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 25-13 to Alonso
Points 65-37
Stoffel Vandoorne - 2017-2018
For the 2017 season McLaren would bring in rookie Stoffel Vandoorne to replace Button and team with Alonso. Alonso at McLaren with a rookie teammate. I'm sure I have heard this one before? But this one went very differently. If the 2016 was a slight step in the right direction for McLaren then the 2017 season was 2 steps backwards. Alonso would retire from the first 2 races with a broken floor and a broken driveshaft whilst Vandoorne would finish 13th and retire due to a fuel pressure issue. Vandoorne wouldn't start the third race of the year due to a water pressure issue and Alonso would breakdown with a power unit issue on the 54th lap of 56 then Alonso didn't start in Russia due to a gearbox issue. At the Spanish Grand Prix Alonso saw the chequered flag for the first time finishing 12th in his home race whilst Vandoorne would crash into Felipe Massa's Williams. By the 6th race of the year at Monaco McLaren were pointless and Alonso flew off to the US to compete in the Indy 500 where he would retire with an engine failure after leading with 21 laps to go. Meanwhile at Monaco Alonso had been replaced by Button who retired after a crash and Vandoorne ended his race in the wall. Overall a bad day for the McLaren boys.
Alonso was finally able to get McLaren's first points of the season at the 8th round of the season at Baku finishing 8th. He would retire from the next two races before going into the Hungarian Grand Prix where McLaren had somehow scored a double points finish 2 years before and lighting struck twice with Alonso finishing 6th and Vandoorne 10th but even more miraculously Alonso managed to get the fastest lap of the race! McLaren went into the summer break feeling good. After the summer break Alonso would go pointless for 6 races retiring 3 times where as Vandoorne was able to get 2 7th places his highest finishing position of the year.
Alonso would finish the year with 3 point finishes in a row his best points streak since 2014 in the Ferrari. McLaren would end the year 9th in the championship only beating Sauber. Alonso ended the year with 17 points to Vandoorne's 13.
2018 saw McLaren drop Honda as an engine supplier and go to Renault. This change seemed to be a positive one for McLaren with both drivers being able to able to score points in the first 2 races and Alonso scoring points in the first 5 races. Alonso would go on a brief pointless streak for 3 races but that was nothing compared to Vandoorne's 14 race pointless streak. Alonso would pick up points 4 more times across the year but much like Button a couple years before him it appeared that Fernando was checked out of Formula 1 and he went pointless for the last 6 races if the year while Stoffel was able to achieve a point finish once more.
McLaren would end the year 6th in the championship. Alonso scoring 50 points and Vandoorne scoring 12. Adding to this Alonso had out qualified Vandoorne at every race. Alonso announced that at the end of the season he would retire from Formula 1. Vandoorne would be dropped by McLaren so they could have a whole new line up for the 2019 season. This would bring to an end a very dark time in the history of McLaren. It had been 5 years since their last win and 4 years since their last podium. Their best result for their last 4 seasons being 5th. What should top all of that is the complete waste of some great drivers. Button and Alonso both had their passion for Formula 1 crushed by these McLaren years and Vandoorne who go on to prove his talent in Le Mans and Formula E was completely wasted and would never race in Formula 1 again.
2018 would be a very sad way to end the career of Fernando Alonso who finished his final race in 11th. Never to race in Formula 1 ever again.
until he did.
Race Record 23-17 to Alonso
Qualifying Record 37-3 to Alonso
Points 67-25 to Alonso
Esteban Ocon 2021-2022
Alonso would return to the Enstone team now called Alpine for the third time and would return to Formula 1 in 2021 after taking 2 years away. Whilst away Alonso had won the 24 hours of Le Mans twice, The World Endurance championships and the 24 hours of Daytona so it had been a successful break for Fernando. In order to prepare for his return for his return Alonso took part in the post 2020 season young drivers test at the age of 39.
His teammate Esteban Ocon was entering his second year at the team after being by teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the previous year who had left to join Alonso's former team McLaren.
It wasn't a great start for Alonso who had to retire from the first race of the year due to getting a piece of plastic stuck in his brake duct. In the second and third races of the year both drivers would score points but with Ocon as the lead driver. At Spain and Monaco Ocon would score whilst Alonso would be out of the points. Up to this point this did not seem like the Alonso we knew and loved but after Monaco the old Alonso woke up and he went on a 6 race point scoring streak with the first 5 in a row having him beating Ocon. Then at the crazy Hungarian Grand Prix Ocon would win the the race thanks to some incredible defensive driving against Lewis Hamilton by Fernando which would see him finish 4th and receive driver of the day. This would be the first win for the Enstone team since Kimi Raikkonen's victory in Australia in 2013 and the first win for a team named after Renault or their subsidiary brands since Alonso's victory in Japan 2008. Whilst it wasn't Fernando on the top step he would be praised for his incredible driving and great teamwork to give Alpine the win.
Over the remaining 11 races Alonso would score points in 7 of them including his first podium since China 2014. Alpine would end the year 5th in the constructors with Ocon scoring 74 points and Alonso on 81.
The 2022 season would get off to a difficult start for Alonso with a lot of reliability issues seeing him only score points in 1 race from the first 5 and denied him what could of been pole position in Australia. But he was able to make up for this by getting points at the next 10 races his longest streak since 2014. Ocon would not have anywhere near as many issues as Alonso seeing him only retire once all year to Alonso's 3.
As of writing this there are 6 races left of the 2022 season and Ocon is ahead of Alonso by 7 points and is looking to become only the 2nd driver to outscore Alonso whilst being teammates and put an end to his own streak of never beating a teammate but it will be close as the 2 have been evenly matched over the year with Ocon beating Alonso 9 times to Alonso's 7 over the year although Alonso has achieved the teams highest finishing position of 5th one more time than Ocon in what is the closest teammate battle of the year.
Race Record 19-18 to Ocon (so far)
Qualifying Record 19-18 to Alonso (so far)
Points 140-140 Draw (so far)
Lance Stroll 2023-?
So we know who Alonso's next teammate will be. Alonso will join Aston for the 2023 season to team with Lance Stroll. Only time will tell how this pairing will work out but at the moment I would say that Alonso should be able to beat Stroll but Stroll can pull out good results when with the right car. I for one am looking forward to seeing what Alonso can do in the Aston and just hope it not another Fernando Alonso bad career moves.
Conclusion
Ill be honest when i started this i totally expected to say that Ocon was nowhere near the best teammate Alonso has had since Hamilton but looking at the results he might be right or at least close the only one who can challenge him is Button and at that time they had such a bad car we never really got to see what they could do. Although overall i think I would give it to Jenson but we have 4 more races of the Alonso and Ocon connection so may I will have to revisit this after then. But after all of this I feel I am in a good position to give a definitive ranking of all of Alonso's teammates. Apart from Lance Stroll, it would be a bit unfair to rank him before they have even stepped foot into the same car,
13) Jacques Villeneuve
12) Alex Yoong
11) Romain Grosjean
10) Nelson Piquet Jr
9) Tarso Marques
8) Kimi Raikkonen
7) Felipe Massa
6)Stoffel Vandoorne
5) Giancarlo Fisichella
4) Esteban Ocon
3) Jenson Button
2) Jarno Trulli
1) Lewis Hamilton
So there you go. There is my list and while there is plenty of room for debate and people could easily be moved up and down I am pretty happy with it. Ocon could definitely be in the top 3 depending on how the next 4 races go but the one thing I have learnt the most from writing this is that Fernando Alonso is pretty damn good even if he does appear to often be in the wrong car at the wrong time.
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