Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

Those were the days, my friend...

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Fernando Alonso was clearly having a wretched time of it this weekend in Suzuka as he finished just outside the points in the Japanese Grand Prix.

It all seems a far cry to this same weekend ten years ago in 2005, when Alonso won his first Formula One drivers championship by clinching victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Here he is celebrating with the Renault team, which also picked up the constructors title at the same time.

Happy days indeed. They must feel like a distant dream to Alonso now as he grapples with his 'GP2 spec' engine at McLaren...

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.