Current team: McLaren
Youngest ever GP winner and double champion
2005 & 2006 F1 drivers' champion
1999 Euro Open series champion

Fernando Alonso is already a Formula 1 legend.

The youngest ever world champion, a back-to-back title winner, and the man who brought Michael Schumacher’s reign to an end.

This year provides a new challenge, as after growing into a world-beater with the Renault team, he flies the nest for McLaren – and a car that he only saw in his mirrors last season.

But it would be no surprise if this awesome talent swiftly ended McLaren’s championship drought.

Alonso did not dally in junior racing for long.

A karting ace in his teens, he won the Spanish-based Formula Nissan series in 1999 and then got straight amongst the experienced drivers in Formula 3000 – ending his debut season with a crushing victory at Spa.

He entered F1 at the underprivileged end of the pit lane, driving for a Minardi team that had been on the brink of folding two months earlier.

Its hastily-built chassis should have been slowest by far, yet Alonso dragged it to the brink of the top ten on occasion.

His engineers couldn’t believe their eyes.

Renault boss Flavio Briatore was searching for a ‘new Schumacher’ – a burgeoning superstar to build his revitalised team around.

Alonso ticked all the right boxes.

After an educational year as Renault’s test driver, he made an explosive return to racing in 2003.

His first pole and podium came in Malaysia, he lapped Schumacher on the way to his maiden win in Hungary, and wowed with his ability to lap at the absolute limit for an entire GP distance.

His 2004 performances were less impressive.

Although he was sometimes the dominant Ferrari team’s nearest challenger, Alonso was too often outshone by team-mate Jarno Trulli, and made some uncharacteristic errors.

But 2005 erased all memories of this disappointment.

Renault hit the ground running, and Alonso took three straight wins early on, including an unforgettable triumph over Schumacher at Imola.

By mid-season Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren was often the fastest package, but Alonso relentlessly piled up the podiums, and pounced whenever the fragile McLaren faltered.

He clinched his first title at Interlagos.

Alonso then stunned F1 by announcing he would leave for McLaren after one more season with Renault.

Many feared that this would disrupt his relationship with the team and hamper his title defence.

They needn’t have worried.

Alonso and Renault put 2007 to the backs of their minds and concentrated on winning one last championship together.

After a blistering start to the season, their contest with Schumacher and Ferrari in the second half of the year made 2005 look like child’s play.

Schumacher had a large performance advantage over the summer, and everything seemed to be conspiring against Alonso.

Renault’s mass damper system was controversially banned, he received a questionable penalty at Monza, and was robbed of a potentially great wet weather win by a freak failure in Hungary.

Despite all this, Alonso belied his 25 years and remained composed and unshakeable on the track, even if his anger sometimes spilled over at the sheer injustice of it all in press conferences

He had led Schumacher by 25 points at mid-season, but the duellists went to the penultimate round in Japan absolutely equal.

It was Ferrari that stumbled at the final hurdle, though, as Schumacher’s engine failure left Alonso free to become a double champion.

Schumacher left F1 as a beaten man, while Alonso cemented his position in the sport’s history and went into 2007 as the undisputed benchmark for the next generation.