Claim: Fernando Alonso is a Formula One racing driver and he is Spanish.

Fernando Alonso Díaz -LRB- born 29 July 1981 -RRB- is a Spanish Formula One racing driver and a double World Champion who is currently racing for McLaren-Honda . He is often regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in the history of the sport .  He took part in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 .   Born in Oviedo , the capital of the autonomous region of Asturias , Alonso started in karting from the age of 3 . He won three consecutive karting championships in Spain from 1994 to 1997 , and he became world karting champion in 1996 . He made his Formula One debut in the season with Minardi , and then moved to the Renault team as a test driver the next year . Starting in Alonso then became one of the main drivers of the team . On 25 September 2005 , he won the Formula One World Drivers ' Championship title at the age of 24 years and 58 days , at the time making him the youngest Formula One World Drivers ' Champion . After retaining the title the following year , Alonso also became the youngest double Champion at the time . He joined McLaren in , before returning to Renault for two seasons in and .   For the season , he joined Scuderia Ferrari . Although Alonso did not reach his goal of winning a third title while at Ferrari he managed to finish runner up on three occasions -LRB- , and -RRB- as well as winning eleven Grands Prix with the team and clearly beating his teammates for points in all five seasons . His strongest title challenges were in 2010 and 2012 , finishing both seasons just adrift of title winner Sebastian Vettel . He left Ferrari at the end of the season , two years prior to the original expiry of his contract .   Nicknamed El Nano , a typical pseudonym for Fernando in Asturias , his place of birth , Alonso acts as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF . Alonso also had become the youngest driver to win a pole position and Grand Prix respectively in the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix and the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix , before both records were broken by Sebastian Vettel in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix . With his fourth-place finish in the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix , scoring his 1,571 st career point , Alonso took over the record for most championship points in his career . However , the record has once again been broken by Sebastian Vettel at the 2015 Italian Grand Prix . , Alonso is the only Spanish driver to have won a Formula One Grand Prix and is the driver with the sixth highest number of Grand Prix wins , with .