Five worst moments of Fernando Alonso’s F1 career including German GP team orders and Hungarian GP disaster

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Fernando Alonso has gone through some tough moments during his Formula 1 career, so F1 Oversteer has looked into some of his worst races, including the German Grand Prix and Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard is often referred to as a driver who could have won more during his Formula 1 career, although Fernando Alonso has rarely had luck on his side since his debut in 2001.

With just two titles to his name, Alonso could easily have reached four had it not been for a combination of misfortune or bad luck during his spells at McLaren and Ferrari.

With that, F1 Oversteer has taken a look at the five worst moments from Alonso’s Formula 1 career so far with spells at Minardi, Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin…

Fernando Alonso misses out on Monaco Grand Prix win in 2004

The 2004 Monaco Grand Prix was eventful, not least as it was the sole victory for Renault driver Jarno Trulli, who was involved in an epic final lap showdown with Jenson Button.

His teammate, Alonso, had been on course to fight for the victory with Michael Schumacher. But early on in the race, he attempted an overtake on Ralf Schumacher exiting the tunnel.

Getting on the dirty line, Alonso skidded off into the barriers and emerged from the tunnel backwards and with all four corners of his Renault destroyed.

Schumacher would eventually also crash at the same place after colliding with Juan Pablo Montoya, but it was a case of what could have been for Alonso in the 2004 Monaco GP.

Fernando Alonso damages F1 reputation at 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix

Alonso’s first tenure at McLaren was just as disastrous as his second, although for a very different reason. His teammate for 2007 was a rookie Lewis Hamilton, who was keen on making an impression.

Ron Dennis and McLaren had supported Hamilton throughout his junior career and gave him every possible opportunity to fight for wins, although Alonso was not happy.

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix that year, Hamilton had a two-point advantage over Alonso and Ferrari rival Felipe Massa in the title race and was the nearest to leader Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso knew qualifying was key at the Hungaroring, and when both advanced through to Q3, he cooked up a plan to hinder his teammate in the pits.

After setting their first timed laps, both McLaren drivers pitted for new tyres. But instead of changing them and heading straight back out, Alonso stayed in his box on purpose to block Hamilton.

Alonso delayed his exit by another 10 seconds and while Hamilton was eventually allowed to pit, he missed the cut-off for setting another time.

Alonso was quickest provisionally, but he later picked up a five-place grid penalty for his actions and went on to finish fourth. The whole 2007 Hungarian GP saga ‘damaged’ Alonso’s reputation in F1, as those in F1 felt he went too far.

Team orders embroil Fernando Alonso and Ferrari at 2010 German Grand Prix

Yet more controversy for Alonso, but this time it was at the 2010 German Grand Prix, when he was racing for Ferrari.

It was clear that he was their best chance of winning a title that year, given that Massa had just come back from his bad injury midway through the 2009 season.

Massa had qualified in third and duly took the lead from front-row starters Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. The Brazilian then defended his position in the ensuing laps, with Alonso calling the situation “ridiculous” over team radio.

Seeing that Alonso was faster than Massa on the timing information, Ferrari’s Rob Smedley told his driver, “Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?” which was effectively a team order to tell him to move out of the way.

Team orders were banned in F1 at the time, leading to controversy post-race over the usage of the radio message and whether Ferrari should be disqualified.

The team was summoned to the stewards and was later fined $100,000 (£64,700) for infringing on the rule, but the stewards elected not to exclude them from the results.

Fernando Alonso suffers second big crash at Spa during 2018 Belgian Grand Prix

After being involved in a heavy crash at the start of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix with Romain Grosjean, Alonso’s luck at Spa-Francorchamps got even worse in 2018.

This time, the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg braked too late and hit the back of Alonso, causing his McLaren to launch into the air and land on top of the Sauber driven by Charles Leclerc.

Much of the left-hand side of Alonso’s car was destroyed, while Leclerc credited the halo with saving him from being struck by the McLaren and causing serious injury.

Fernando Alonso suffers his worst finishing result in an F1 race at 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix

Alonso’s career at Aston Martin started well with eight podiums in 2023; however, things would take a turn for the worse in 2024.

Aston Martin slipped back in the competitive order in 2024 and were often left questioning where they were losing performance, having treated most of the races at the end of 2024 as a test session.

At the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix, Alonso even suffered his worst finishing result in F1 to date when completing a full race distance after he finished in just P19 in a field of 20 cars.

Having started from the pit lane, it was the first time he failed to score points in 2024 and the first time in his career that Alonso finished a race in a position outside of the top 17 places.