A raging bull. The fighter pure. The ultimate competitor. The fire and fury of a double world champion who looked set to become the naturally dominant successor to Michael Schumacher.
Then came Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull; then came Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Different authors, same story: total world domination. Even fired-up Ferrari and Fernando couldn't beat that challenge - though how hard they tried from 2010-13.
It's 11 seasons since Alonso won a world title; nearly five since he won a grand prix - romantics will remember his '13 victory lap of the Barcelona circuit, his fist gripping a Bandera de Espana, which fluttered from the cockpit.
He was a hero to the Catalan throng that day; he remains a hero to his global army of fans, whose passion for his combative style remains undimmed, despite the past three fallow years spent driving a flaccid McLaren-Honda.
They worship at the Alonso temple when they hear tales of "fist-shaped holes" being punched in the walls of McLaren's hospitality unit during a spleen-venting session after a lost big result at last year's Singapore GP. They thrill to the ultra-combative dice with Hamilton at the Mexican GP for ninth place, simply because they know it's Alonso and Hamilton wheel-to-wheel and even if Hamilton has a far superior machine, Alonso will never capitulate.
A boxer, but not a bruiser. A fighter too skilled to need low blows. A driver in the Mansell mould: pugnacious, fearless, compelling. A sky-rocket in need of a match. Light the blue touch paper; retire in haste.
How frustrating, then, has been the abortive McLaren-Honda partnership, one born amid such optimism?
"To race with no hope... that is the worst thing," says Alonso, that expressive face calm and serious as he allows the gravity of his words to settle.
"It has been a challenge for all of us - not only on the technical side. .How strong can you be mentally when it feels that even when things aren't going right, they get even worse? Like in Singapore, one of the three races we targeted last year for a good result.
"For a second you are in third place, then you have a crash in the first corner, even when you were not involved at any point. On those kinds of days you have to stay cool, you have to stay focused."
Dare we suggest, though, that these lost years might represent the calm before the storm? That Alonso in 2018 spec is a compressed spring, ready to unleash his energy given even a half-decent McLaren-Renault MCL33 with which to work?
McLaren executive director Zak Brown certainly believes so - he confesses to being "amazed" by the sheer hunger for motorsport Alonso has shown via his forays into IndyCar and sportscar racing (not to mention sneaky under-the-radar karting competitions, entered under a nom de plume).
F1 Racing: How good can McLaren be with Renault power?
Fernando Alonso: I think I'm happy. I'm confident that this year we can turn things around and go back to the place that we belong. McLaren as a team means 'success'. Normally even a bad year for McLaren is third or fourth in the constructors' championship - never ninth [as it was in 2015 and '17].
F1R: So you're hoping for what you might call a 'normal' season in 2018?
FA: Yes - back to normality, back to this normal feeling of getting to every grand prix and preparing through practice and qualifying and knowing that you should be in the top five - and if you do well you could be on the podium.
"If you remove the losses that we see on the straights [in 2017], then actually we are OK - we could be up at the front"Alonso on McLaren's Honda handicap
And if you do something really special, you could even be a winner. That motivation and that preparation have been the things I've missed... But these are things that I hope to have this year. That's the biggest expectation.
F1R: Your best results these past three seasons have been three fifth places. Did you ever think 'I can't do this anymore'?
FA: [Alonso pauses to gather his thoughts. Then a deep breath and a grin...] Yes, I did think about the possibility of changing series and stopping Formula 1...
After I did the Indy 500 last year, when I came back there were a couple of races in Austria, Silverstone, when I thought 'maybe next year I could try a different series; I could do full commitment to the triple crown and do Indy and Le Mans and maybe that's the best thing'.
But I felt it was not the time for me to step out - not right now, not after these results, not with this feeling... I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life and that I would have this bad taste [he almost spits out the words] for the rest of my racing career.
So definitely I still want to succeed. There is unfinished business for me and McLaren together. And I think this year is the time all these things will change. I feel pretty sure about that.
F1R: What makes you feel that way?
FA: The chassis side is finally progressing as we wanted, with momentum and with things moving in the right direction. So if we just could have a good power unit, that would be the solution. In F1, everything is on the table. You have such clever engineers, so much tech, that we know if we are losing 10 milliseconds in a slow corner or 40 milliseconds in high-speed corners.
We understand braking, traction, we know everyone's tyre pressures - we do those calculations every weekend and if you remove the losses that we see on the straights, then actually we are OK, we could be up at the front. I don't know if we will be winning, but close to the performance of the Red Bulls or something like that.
That was quite encouraging and a way of finding a positive sign in the last two years, when we knew that we had a lack of power. We have also been weak on the chassis side, but last year was much stronger. This is what stopped me from making the decision to stop F1.
Winning the triple crown [the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500] would make me feel very proud if I achieved it one day, but if I stopped F1 now I will regret it for the rest of my life.
F1R: And any driver only has a short period of time where success and being competitive is possible.
FA: Yes, but I have so much self-confidence. Every time I raced in the smaller categories before F1, we were delivering the result. So I knew that in F1, we just needed a car in the range of two, three, four tenths of the top ones... And with that, we will play.
At some circuits we will lose; at some circuits we will beat the others; at some circuits we will play with the strategy to overcome the deficit. But you are in the game. It was the same for me at Indianapolis.
F1R: Your race at the 500 was one of the highlights of last year. What was it really like?
FA: At first it was difficult. I was not comfortable because the car felt weird - set up to turn left, asymmetric suspension - and I was not feeling confident after the first turn. And there were two million people watching on YouTube! That was a huge number for a test.
And I was thinking 'maybe I'll jump in the car and I won't like it. Maybe I won't feel competitive. Maybe I won't like the feeling. Maybe I won't 'feel' the car...' But then it would be very difficult to say that we would not be racing in three weeks' time. Because we'd announced officially that we were racing!
But quickly I started to feel the self-confidence again. It woke up all my racing senses. Suddenly it was 'Indianapolis? I like this! Maybe I can do some more go-karts or Le Mans'.
F1R: And had you forgotten how that felt?
FA: To be honest, yes. I hadn't felt it for a while, but now I feel we could do a very good season if we have a good package this year, because I am sure I will be able to put in the 'extra' that I have put in all my career.
That has been the most difficult thing to give to the team over the past three years: the commitment, the work, simulator feedback. That's something that comes naturally for a racer. But to give the extra, when you're in Mexico and you have a power unit change and starting last because of a 35-place engine penalty, things like the extra two-tenths or moves in the race - or maybe a magic start - don't come out.
F1R: Where do they come from, those special moments?
FA: It's not conscious. It's just how you feel on the day. Maybe in the strategy meetings on a Sunday morning you see the graphs, you see the simulations, and they say you will finish fourth - but you feel that you will finish higher, even if there are no mathematic reasons but you feel it. And then it starts to become real.
F1R: It must be tough when you know that even on a special day the best you can hope for is fifth or sixth.
FA: You know, in difficult times you learn a lot more than in easy times and in the past three years we've made the whole team and ourselves stronger than ever. We are more ready to take the challenge if we are competitive this year than we were three years ago.
Now we have very young, very talented people coming from other teams - Ferrari, Red Bull - and these three years have made us very strong and united as a group. I believe we are ready for bigger things.
F1R: And what about you, personally? How do you keep motivated as a sportsman when your machinery holds you back? That's a very particular aspect of Formula 1...
FA: To be honest with you, it has not been easy. There have been ups and downs, highs and lows. Not in the race weekend itself, because when you go through practice and you start the meetings with engineers, prepare your qualifying runs and so on, the competitive sportsman inside you wakes up and you are ready to take any challenge.
But between races it has been difficult. I had to push myself a little bit more to stay focused and to stay in the game. I don't like losing - I like winning, in anything I do in life not only motorsport, so every Sunday night when I've been getting back from a race, I have not been happy.
I always think things will change for the next race and we will score some points and we will do better - even if I know that's not totally true. I have that feeling all the time, I never stop dreaming. The hunger for winning is always there so it has not been difficult to motivate myself.
F1R: Did you have to think back to better years and remind yourself 'I know I am better than this'?
FA: Actually, no. I never did that. I always felt strong and competitive against [McLaren team-mates] Jenson [Button] or Stoffel [Vandoorne]. My own motivation and confidence was never a problem, so I didn't have to look back.
[But there's a little confession coming, which Alonso offers after toying with the idea in his mind for a moment...]
You know, I do occasionally look back at some of my past races because I want to enjoy them a little bit. On some of the F1 channels they broadcast races from many years ago - the whole race - and that's a nice way to relax for an hour or so.
F1R: What's it like watching yourself?
FA: [Huge, flashing smile] Amazing! Yeah, really amazing because obviously you don't recognise yourself. You see the race completely differently from the inside. You don't analyse things in the same way from the outside. Maybe you can hear a commentator getting stressed because you're losing time... but you remember that you were saving tyres, or maybe you had a little problem one lap. When you watch like this it helps you understand some of the questions from the media and how the race looks so different from outside the car.
F1R: Any particular races?
FA: Not really... but the good times, when we were winning. I remember in 2005 with some cars being on pole position - Toyota or BAR - then they would stop on lap eight or lap 11 but we knew we had fuel until lap 16, so even if we were fifth, it was quite a nice feeling inside.
F1R: Your good friend Robert Kubica told us last year that being faced with difficulty and a massive challenge [his recovery from a near-fatal injury] had made him a better driver. Has a different kind of adversity made you a better driver?
"If you were an iPhone you would have a software update every six months; now a Formula 1 driver does that every month - because you need to find something extra"
FA: Definitely yes. Because the way you have to drive and maximise the package is different. When I was winning, some of the races meant pushing in the first stint and then after that taking care of the car and not riding kerbs too aggressively, or on the pitstops trying to brake 20 metres earlier because you don't want to hit a mechanic or overshoot the marks.
That's the 20% margin or whatever you have in hand when you have a dominant package. That probably slows down your learning curve, because you're not so demanding of yourself and your mental capacity or your physical capacity. When you're having a difficult time, you upgrade your driving style every single day.
F1R: Are there specific aspects of your driving that you have improved in that past year or so?
FA: Yeah, definitely - the level of understanding of the tyres is greater than ever, so we've had to adapt to that. In recent years the tyres were very fragile and we couldn't push them too much. Or they might underperform at the end of a lap or at the end of a stint. Last year we came back to a more normal tyre that you can push all the way.
F1 has actually evolved a lot and drivers are much more prepared now: you have to perform at the maximum in every part of the race - every lap, every overtaking move, every fuel-saving technique. You're always around the optimal driving style from Friday to Sunday.
For example, if you were an iPhone you would have a software update every six months; now a Formula 1 driver does that every month - especially when you are running at the back, because you need to find something extra.
F1R: Hamilton has always had 0.2s advantage over his team-mates in qualifying - apart from you. Does it frustrate you to watch his success when your own car has been so uncompetitive?
FA: No it doesn't frustrate me... too much! When you're fighting for the world championship with someone and he gets the title, that's frustrating. You start thinking 'I deserve it more'. But I don't have that feeling when I'm not in the championship fight.
Actually, I think Lewis really deserves the championships he's having now. He had more talent than the numbers showed at the beginning. Now it's a bit easier for him, because his car is dominant, but he's equal with Sebastian [both have four world titles] and that's fair.
F1R: But what about when you lost the 2012 world title to Vettel in Brazil? The camera found you and focused on your expression. You'd lost the title by three points and you looked absolutely shell-shocked...
FA: Yeah... Well... I was waiting for Felipe [Massa]. He had tried to help me as much as he could and he was hugging his family. I didn't know that the camera was there... and I was just 'not there'.
2012 was probably my best season in F1 on a personal driving level, and I definitely believe we deserved that one... but it wasn't possible. It doesn't frustrate me but I know that the numbers are a little bit unfair with us. Maybe this year we'll get some luck back.
F1R: Your McLaren results don't seem to have affected your popularity if your social media following is anything to go by [2.5m Twitter followers and counting]...
FA: I know - it's amazing. I've even asked some of my guys about it because anywhere else - soccer, tennis or whatever, if you have three bad years everything goes down: your popularity, sponsor commitments, your fan base... But that's not the case.
Maybe it's my [in-car] radio broadcasts. They seem to be quite popular! For whatever reason, people seem to be close to me and probably they also feel that we deserve more. In 2010 and 2012, for many people I should have won those championships. That's nice. They give you something back. Even if they don't give you the trophy, they give you the love.
A raging bull. The fighter pure. The ultimate competitor. The fire and fury of a double world champion who looked set to become the naturally dominant successor to Michael Schumacher.
Then came Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull; then came Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Different authors, same story: total world domination. Even fired-up Ferrari and Fernando couldn't beat that challenge - though how hard they tried from 2010-13.
It's 11 seasons since Alonso won a world title; nearly five since he won a grand prix - romantics will remember his '13 victory lap of the Barcelona circuit, his fist gripping a Bandera de Espana, which fluttered from the cockpit.
He was a hero to the Catalan throng that day; he remains a hero to his global army of fans, whose passion for his combative style remains undimmed, despite the past three fallow years spent driving a flaccid McLaren-Honda.
They worship at the Alonso temple when they hear tales of "fist-shaped holes" being punched in the walls of McLaren's hospitality unit during a spleen-venting session after a lost big result at last year's Singapore GP. They thrill to the ultra-combative dice with Hamilton at the Mexican GP for ninth place, simply because they know it's Alonso and Hamilton wheel-to-wheel and even if Hamilton has a far superior machine, Alonso will never capitulate.
A boxer, but not a bruiser. A fighter too skilled to need low blows. A driver in the Mansell mould: pugnacious, fearless, compelling. A sky-rocket in need of a match. Light the blue touch paper; retire in haste.
How frustrating, then, has been the abortive McLaren-Honda partnership, one born amid such optimism?
"To race with no hope... that is the worst thing," says Alonso, that expressive face calm and serious as he allows the gravity of his words to settle.
"It has been a challenge for all of us - not only on the technical side. .How strong can you be mentally when it feels that even when things aren't going right, they get even worse? Like in Singapore, one of the three races we targeted last year for a good result.
"For a second you are in third place, then you have a crash in the first corner, even when you were not involved at any point. On those kinds of days you have to stay cool, you have to stay focused."
Dare we suggest, though, that these lost years might represent the calm before the storm? That Alonso in 2018 spec is a compressed spring, ready to unleash his energy given even a half-decent McLaren-Renault MCL33 with which to work?
McLaren executive director Zak Brown certainly believes so - he confesses to being "amazed" by the sheer hunger for motorsport Alonso has shown via his forays into IndyCar and sportscar racing (not to mention sneaky under-the-radar karting competitions, entered under a nom de plume).
F1 Racing: How good can McLaren be with Renault power?
Fernando Alonso: I think I'm happy. I'm confident that this year we can turn things around and go back to the place that we belong. McLaren as a team means 'success'. Normally even a bad year for McLaren is third or fourth in the constructors' championship - never ninth [as it was in 2015 and '17].
F1R: So you're hoping for what you might call a 'normal' season in 2018?
FA: Yes - back to normality, back to this normal feeling of getting to every grand prix and preparing through practice and qualifying and knowing that you should be in the top five - and if you do well you could be on the podium.
"If you remove the losses that we see on the straights [in 2017], then actually we are OK - we could be up at the front"Alonso on McLaren's Honda handicap
And if you do something really special, you could even be a winner. That motivation and that preparation have been the things I've missed... But these are things that I hope to have this year. That's the biggest expectation.
F1R: Your best results these past three seasons have been three fifth places. Did you ever think 'I can't do this anymore'?
FA: [Alonso pauses to gather his thoughts. Then a deep breath and a grin...] Yes, I did think about the possibility of changing series and stopping Formula 1...
After I did the Indy 500 last year, when I came back there were a couple of races in Austria, Silverstone, when I thought 'maybe next year I could try a different series; I could do full commitment to the triple crown and do Indy and Le Mans and maybe that's the best thing'.
But I felt it was not the time for me to step out - not right now, not after these results, not with this feeling... I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life and that I would have this bad taste [he almost spits out the words] for the rest of my racing career.
So definitely I still want to succeed. There is unfinished business for me and McLaren together. And I think this year is the time all these things will change. I feel pretty sure about that.
F1R: What makes you feel that way?
FA: The chassis side is finally progressing as we wanted, with momentum and with things moving in the right direction. So if we just could have a good power unit, that would be the solution. In F1, everything is on the table. You have such clever engineers, so much tech, that we know if we are losing 10 milliseconds in a slow corner or 40 milliseconds in high-speed corners.
We understand braking, traction, we know everyone's tyre pressures - we do those calculations every weekend and if you remove the losses that we see on the straights, then actually we are OK, we could be up at the front. I don't know if we will be winning, but close to the performance of the Red Bulls or something like that.
That was quite encouraging and a way of finding a positive sign in the last two years, when we knew that we had a lack of power. We have also been weak on the chassis side, but last year was much stronger. This is what stopped me from making the decision to stop F1.
Winning the triple crown [the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500] would make me feel very proud if I achieved it one day, but if I stopped F1 now I will regret it for the rest of my life.
F1R: And any driver only has a short period of time where success and being competitive is possible.
FA: Yes, but I have so much self-confidence. Every time I raced in the smaller categories before F1, we were delivering the result. So I knew that in F1, we just needed a car in the range of two, three, four tenths of the top ones... And with that, we will play.
At some circuits we will lose; at some circuits we will beat the others; at some circuits we will play with the strategy to overcome the deficit. But you are in the game. It was the same for me at Indianapolis.
F1R: Your race at the 500 was one of the highlights of last year. What was it really like?
FA: At first it was difficult. I was not comfortable because the car felt weird - set up to turn left, asymmetric suspension - and I was not feeling confident after the first turn. And there were two million people watching on YouTube! That was a huge number for a test.
And I was thinking 'maybe I'll jump in the car and I won't like it. Maybe I won't feel competitive. Maybe I won't like the feeling. Maybe I won't 'feel' the car...' But then it would be very difficult to say that we would not be racing in three weeks' time. Because we'd announced officially that we were racing!
But quickly I started to feel the self-confidence again. It woke up all my racing senses. Suddenly it was 'Indianapolis? I like this! Maybe I can do some more go-karts or Le Mans'.
F1R: And had you forgotten how that felt?
FA: To be honest, yes. I hadn't felt it for a while, but now I feel we could do a very good season if we have a good package this year, because I am sure I will be able to put in the 'extra' that I have put in all my career.
That has been the most difficult thing to give to the team over the past three years: the commitment, the work, simulator feedback. That's something that comes naturally for a racer. But to give the extra, when you're in Mexico and you have a power unit change and starting last because of a 35-place engine penalty, things like the extra two-tenths or moves in the race - or maybe a magic start - don't come out.
F1R: Where do they come from, those special moments?
FA: It's not conscious. It's just how you feel on the day. Maybe in the strategy meetings on a Sunday morning you see the graphs, you see the simulations, and they say you will finish fourth - but you feel that you will finish higher, even if there are no mathematic reasons but you feel it. And then it starts to become real.
F1R: It must be tough when you know that even on a special day the best you can hope for is fifth or sixth.
FA: You know, in difficult times you learn a lot more than in easy times and in the past three years we've made the whole team and ourselves stronger than ever. We are more ready to take the challenge if we are competitive this year than we were three years ago.
Now we have very young, very talented people coming from other teams - Ferrari, Red Bull - and these three years have made us very strong and united as a group. I believe we are ready for bigger things.
F1R: And what about you, personally? How do you keep motivated as a sportsman when your machinery holds you back? That's a very particular aspect of Formula 1...
FA: To be honest with you, it has not been easy. There have been ups and downs, highs and lows. Not in the race weekend itself, because when you go through practice and you start the meetings with engineers, prepare your qualifying runs and so on, the competitive sportsman inside you wakes up and you are ready to take any challenge.
But between races it has been difficult. I had to push myself a little bit more to stay focused and to stay in the game. I don't like losing - I like winning, in anything I do in life not only motorsport, so every Sunday night when I've been getting back from a race, I have not been happy.
I always think things will change for the next race and we will score some points and we will do better - even if I know that's not totally true. I have that feeling all the time, I never stop dreaming. The hunger for winning is always there so it has not been difficult to motivate myself.
F1R: Did you have to think back to better years and remind yourself 'I know I am better than this'?
FA: Actually, no. I never did that. I always felt strong and competitive against [McLaren team-mates] Jenson [Button] or Stoffel [Vandoorne]. My own motivation and confidence was never a problem, so I didn't have to look back.
[But there's a little confession coming, which Alonso offers after toying with the idea in his mind for a moment...]
You know, I do occasionally look back at some of my past races because I want to enjoy them a little bit. On some of the F1 channels they broadcast races from many years ago - the whole race - and that's a nice way to relax for an hour or so.
F1R: What's it like watching yourself?
FA: [Huge, flashing smile] Amazing! Yeah, really amazing because obviously you don't recognise yourself. You see the race completely differently from the inside. You don't analyse things in the same way from the outside. Maybe you can hear a commentator getting stressed because you're losing time... but you remember that you were saving tyres, or maybe you had a little problem one lap. When you watch like this it helps you understand some of the questions from the media and how the race looks so different from outside the car.
F1R: Any particular races?
FA: Not really... but the good times, when we were winning. I remember in 2005 with some cars being on pole position - Toyota or BAR - then they would stop on lap eight or lap 11 but we knew we had fuel until lap 16, so even if we were fifth, it was quite a nice feeling inside.
F1R: Your good friend Robert Kubica told us last year that being faced with difficulty and a massive challenge [his recovery from a near-fatal injury] had made him a better driver. Has a different kind of adversity made you a better driver?
"If you were an iPhone you would have a software update every six months; now a Formula 1 driver does that every month - because you need to find something extra"
FA: Definitely yes. Because the way you have to drive and maximise the package is different. When I was winning, some of the races meant pushing in the first stint and then after that taking care of the car and not riding kerbs too aggressively, or on the pitstops trying to brake 20 metres earlier because you don't want to hit a mechanic or overshoot the marks.
That's the 20% margin or whatever you have in hand when you have a dominant package. That probably slows down your learning curve, because you're not so demanding of yourself and your mental capacity or your physical capacity. When you're having a difficult time, you upgrade your driving style every single day.
F1R: Are there specific aspects of your driving that you have improved in that past year or so?
FA: Yeah, definitely - the level of understanding of the tyres is greater than ever, so we've had to adapt to that. In recent years the tyres were very fragile and we couldn't push them too much. Or they might underperform at the end of a lap or at the end of a stint. Last year we came back to a more normal tyre that you can push all the way.
F1 has actually evolved a lot and drivers are much more prepared now: you have to perform at the maximum in every part of the race - every lap, every overtaking move, every fuel-saving technique. You're always around the optimal driving style from Friday to Sunday.
For example, if you were an iPhone you would have a software update every six months; now a Formula 1 driver does that every month - especially when you are running at the back, because you need to find something extra.
F1R: Hamilton has always had 0.2s advantage over his team-mates in qualifying - apart from you. Does it frustrate you to watch his success when your own car has been so uncompetitive?
FA: No it doesn't frustrate me... too much! When you're fighting for the world championship with someone and he gets the title, that's frustrating. You start thinking 'I deserve it more'. But I don't have that feeling when I'm not in the championship fight.
Actually, I think Lewis really deserves the championships he's having now. He had more talent than the numbers showed at the beginning. Now it's a bit easier for him, because his car is dominant, but he's equal with Sebastian [both have four world titles] and that's fair.
F1R: But what about when you lost the 2012 world title to Vettel in Brazil? The camera found you and focused on your expression. You'd lost the title by three points and you looked absolutely shell-shocked...
FA: Yeah... Well... I was waiting for Felipe [Massa]. He had tried to help me as much as he could and he was hugging his family. I didn't know that the camera was there... and I was just 'not there'.
2012 was probably my best season in F1 on a personal driving level, and I definitely believe we deserved that one... but it wasn't possible. It doesn't frustrate me but I know that the numbers are a little bit unfair with us. Maybe this year we'll get some luck back.
F1R: Your McLaren results don't seem to have affected your popularity if your social media following is anything to go by [2.5m Twitter followers and counting]...
FA: I know - it's amazing. I've even asked some of my guys about it because anywhere else - soccer, tennis or whatever, if you have three bad years everything goes down: your popularity, sponsor commitments, your fan base... But that's not the case.
Maybe it's my [in-car] radio broadcasts. They seem to be quite popular! For whatever reason, people seem to be close to me and probably they also feel that we deserve more. In 2010 and 2012, for many people I should have won those championships. That's nice. They give you something back. Even if they don't give you the trophy, they give you the love.
