Fernando Alonso spent seven visits finishing every Azerbaijan Grand Prix he started, which at Baku is a quieter kind of achievement than a podium but a rarer one. In 2026 it ended. He retired on lap 20, and a record that had never carried a blank finally got one.
Forty two points from eight visits, almost all of it collected in cars that had no business scoring, and still no finish better than fourth. This is the clearest example on the grid of a driver taking exactly what a weekend offers and not a place less.
Ninth from nineteenth, and a best of fourth
His first Baku start, in 2017, is still the one worth pointing at. He qualified 19th in a McLaren that spent that season breaking down, and finished ninth. Ten places gained at a circuit where the received wisdom is that you start where you finish.
2018 brought seventh from twelfth, again in a car that was nowhere. Between them those two afternoons produced eight points nobody expected to exist.
The Alpine years were steadier: sixth in 2021 from eighth on the grid, seventh in 2022 from tenth. Never spectacular, never wasteful.
The high-water mark is 2023, his first Baku weekend with Aston Martin. He started sixth and finished fourth, in the season when that car was genuinely quick, and it is the one year a podium looked plausible rather than fanciful.
Sixth followed in 2024. Then 2025: eleventh on the grid and fifteenth at the flag, the first Baku weekend in seven that gave him nothing. 2026 was worse. He qualified twenty first, last of the runners, and was out by lap 20.
Fernando Alonso's Azerbaijan GP record year by year
Every Azerbaijan Grand Prix start, with the grid slot it came from and what it was worth.
| Season | Grid | Finish | Points | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 19 | P9 | 2 | McLaren |
| 2018 | 12 | P7 | 6 | McLaren |
| 2021 | 8 | P6 | 8 | Alpine |
| 2022 | 10 | P7 | 6 | Alpine |
| 2023 | 6 | P4 | 12 | Aston Martin |
| 2024 | 7 | P6 | 8 | Aston Martin |
| 2025 | 11 | P15 | 0 | Aston Martin |
| 2026 | 21 | P21 | 0 | Aston Martin |
The value of simply being there at the end
No win, no pole, no podium and no fastest lap. What there was instead, for seven years, was a finish every single time at the circuit most likely to deny you one. Lewis Hamilton is now the only driver on the grid still carrying a clean sheet over a comparable run of Baku starts.
At 45, the 2026 race was the first Azerbaijan Grand Prix he has not seen the end of. Both Aston Martin cars were out inside twenty laps, Lance Stroll on lap 7 and Alonso on lap 20, on a day when seven cars failed to finish.
