Giancarlo Fisichella says Fernando Alonso was a ‘fantastic’ teammate just before he came up against Lewis Hamilton

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Giancarlo Fisichella had an illustrious career in F1 that yielded three victories and 19 podiums out of 229 starts.

The Italian made his F1 debut with Minardi in 1996 before going on to race for Jordan and then Benetton, where he partnered Jean Alesi and Alex Wurz, before returning to Jordan where he won his first race in 2003.

He would later have a brief stint at Sauber, partnering future Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa, before returning to Renault with Fernando Alonso.

Fisichella ended his career with a stint at Force India and Ferrari, before going into racing sports cars after the 2009 season, having realised his dream of driving for the Maranello-based squad.

Speaking in an interview for F1 Clash, Fisichella pinpoints which of the partnerships he enjoyed the most during his 15-year career.

Giancarlo Fisichella names Fernando Alonso as ‘fantastic’ teammate

It’s tough for drivers to pick on a single period that they enjoyed the most in the sport, but Fisichella believes there is one standout.

“To be honest in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso we had the best season together,” said Fisichella.

“We won the drivers world championship but also the Constructors’ world championship so I think we did a fantastic job together.”

Alonso’s partnership with Fisichella yielded Renault’s last successful years in F1 in which they won both world championships, with the Italian taking two victories in the process.

Although the Spaniard was not in the quickest car on the grid, the failings of McLaren’s MP4-18 caused headaches for main title rival Kimi Raikkonen, while Michael Schumacher was at the tail end of his success for Ferrari.

Giancarlo Fisichella picks his favourite car to drive in his F1 career

Having driven in F1 through the grooved tyres era of the early 00s, audacious winglets in 2007/2008 and then the conservative cars from 2009, Fisichella named his favourite F1 era.

“I enjoyed with Renault a lot. I remember the revs of the engine in a qualifying session were around 20,000 revs, which is amazing and also in the race it was around 19,000,” said Fisichella.

Talks of bringing back V10s have been floated around the F1 paddock after FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem put forward a proposal to teams.

F1 will be introducing new cars in 2026, but a return to louder engines has been talked about a lot in a bid to improve the show.