Fernando Alonso debuted in Formula 1 at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix with an honorable twelfth place given the level of the Minardi that he had in his hands.
In an interview on the official website of the ‘Gran Circo’, the team leader who made his debut, Paul StoddardDiamond, the bully who led the team, remembered.
First of all, the Aussie highlights the Asturian’s commitment: “Fernando was there until midnight, working who knows what hours, 24 hours a dayso that everything is ready. “All we could do was a quick test at Fiorano, a straight-line test, before putting the cars away.”
After the race, even the team itself couldn’t believe what this youngster from Oviedo had achieved: “What I always remember is that I left the pit wall absolutely euphoric because we we finished the race and Fernando He arrived in 12th place, starting from 19th.“.
“Then I went into the garage and I could see all the mechanics crying and I thought, “What happened here that I don’t know?” But the reality was that they were just tears of pride. Once Fernando entered the pits and got out of the car, everyone hugged him and grabbed himand they were very happy that I succeeded,” he added.
“It was an incredible start to his career and what was to come. Throughout this year, Fernando has shown time and time again that he could put an uncompetitive car in a competitive position. There were many races in which he outperformed the car, his talent surpassed the machine he was in and showed the difference a driver can make,” he concluded.
After this season at Minardi, Alonso was a Renault tester in 2002 and became an official driver in 2003, a season in which he achieved his first pole and his first victory. The rest is history.
