Alonso named as Minardi rookie in 2001

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It was on February 5, 2001 that Flavio Braitore revealed that a talented young driver that he personally managed, one Fernando Alonso, would be stepping up to a full-time Formula One race seat with Minardi in 2001 alongside Brazil's Tarso Marques.

Having completed just two seasons of karting and one year in F3000, the then-19 year old Spanish talent had already been given some testing experience at Briatore's Benetton team to ensure he qualified for the requisite super-licence.

While Alonso failed to score any points in his maiden season, he was praised for impressive performances in the uncompetitive Minardi and was duly picked up by Briatore for the newly-named Renault team in 2003, with world titles following in 2005 and 2006.

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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.