Fernando Alonso showed he had potential to become a world champion in his very first F1 race back in 2001, according to the boss of his then-team Minardi.
podcast, Stoddart reflected on Alonso's rookie season as the Spaniard joined Minardi at the age of 19.
Stoddart felt that Alonso immediately proved himself as a star in the making at Melbourne, where he qualified 19th in a car that had been hurriedly built over the winter, before finishing 12th ahead of Benetton'sBefore Alonso was set to leave the team for a Renault testing contract in 2002, Stoddart added that Alonso's searing pace at Suzuka cemented his opinion of the Spanish driver.
"Now if you want another, it's Suzuka in 2001. In those days we still had the Sunday morning warm-up and it was a tradition that if a driver was leaving, you took all the fuel out of the car and you let them have a glory lap. "They put fuel in the car. So Fernando didn't really get his glory lap - very few times had actually Fernando complained, but that was one of them.
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