From Barcelona points to a painful record: Fernando Alonso hits 209 GPs without winning. Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season at the Spanish GP.

Spain, for better or worse
The most recent Spanish Grand Prix brought a small satisfaction to Fernando Alonso, who, racing in front of his home crowd in Barcelona, managed a good qualifying session and scored his first points finish of the season with a 9th place—finally putting an end to a nightmare that had lasted eight races. In Spain, the two-time world champion had previously achieved much more notable results, with two victories: in 2006 (the year of his last world title) and in 2013, while driving for Ferrari. Few, however, would have imagined that the notes of the Royal March played to celebrate Alonso’s victories would never be heard again from that day onward.

Indeed, Fernando Alonso has not stood on the top step of the podium in 12 years. Over the course of a career that still hasn’t ended at nearly 44 years of age, the Aston Martin driver has collected a total of 32 victories in 410 races contested from 2001 to today. Yet, his stretch of victories in the top category began at the 2003 Hungarian GP with Renault and ended at Montmeló in 2013 with Ferrari. Since then—and factoring in his brief retirement from F1 in 2019 and 2020—209 Grands Prix have gone by.

From De Cesaris to Hülkenberg
Despite having won during his career, Fernando Alonso now ranks 2nd on the all-time list of drivers with the highest number of consecutive races completed without a victory. In his home Grand Prix, car #14 surpassed the late Roman driver Andrea De Cesaris, who competed in F1 from 1980 to 1994. Over a 15-year career, De Cesaris still managed to take one pole position at Long Beach in 1982, as well as five podium finishes—all in the 1980s—with two second places as his best results, in Germany and South Africa in 1983 while driving for Alfa Romeo.

However, the “record” belongs to a driver who also had a strong performance in the latest Spanish GP: Nico Hülkenberg. The German, who has been part of the F1 circus since 2010 (though not continuously), has yet to win a race after 236 Grands Prix. Moreover, he has never reached the podium, though he did claim a pole position at the 2010 Brazilian GP.