Fernando Alonso will contest his 27th home F1 race in this Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, as the Aston Martin driver bids to break his worst start to a season since 2015.
The 43-year-old has endured a campaign to forget so far this term, with Alonso still to score a single point after the first eight rounds. He is one of just four drivers who are yet to get off the mark prior to the Spanish GP with Jack Doohan, Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Alonso has scored points in 14 of his 21 previous appearances at the Spanish GP and he also sealed top-10 finishes in four of his five European Grand Prix entries while the race was held in Valencia. The Aston Martin racer has also won the Spanish GP twice and in Valencia once.
It was even at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya that Alonso sealed his last of 32 race wins back at the 2013 Spanish GP. But he returned to Montmelo this weekend with a best result so far in the 2025 F1 season of P11 during the Grands Prix in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Imola.
Fernando Alonso has a desire to race that Pedro de la Rosa thinks you ‘never see’ in F1
Alonso cannot ‘promise’ he will win races in 2026, either, as the Oviedo native claims Aston Martin have no ‘reliable data’ that their car for the 2026 F1 regulations will be quick. Yet his endless desire to compete despite not having a race-winning car astounds Pedro de la Rosa.
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De la Rosa sees Alonso’s desire first-hand as an Aston Martin ambassador and feels it is like no driver he has ever met in the pinnacle of motorsport. This weekend’s Spanish GP will be Alonso’s 210th Grand Prix since the two-time F1 champion won in Barcelona back in 2013.
“Well, he’s the best,” De la Rosa told Mundo Deportivo. “I’ve never seen a driver who’s been in Formula 1 for so many years with teams that didn’t have the ability to win races, yet he gives it his all as if he were fighting for that victory.”
Fernando Alonso has started 210 F1 Grands Prix since his 32nd and most recent race win
Alonso’s 210 Grand Prix starts since the Aston Martin racer’s last win at the 2013 Spanish GP would also see him rank 22nd in the list of all-time Formula 1 race starts, level with Gerhard Berger. The 2025 Spanish GP will even be Alonso’s 413th, and he is under contract for 2026.
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Only seven-time drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton (364), Nico Hulkenberg (238), four-time champion Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz (217) have also enjoyed more Grand Prix starts in their careers thus far among the 2025 field than Alonso has since he last won an F1 race.
Alonso’s Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll has made the next-most Grand Prix starts all-time among the 2025 field than the Spaniard has since the 2013 Spanish GP with 177 after last week’s Monaco GP. Stroll has scored all 14 of Aston Martin’s points so far this year, too.
