Throwback: Fernando Alonso sends shockwaves through F1 with bombshell announcement

When the news of Lewis Hamilton's bombshell move to Ferrari first appeared in February 2024, it was touted as the biggest driver move in Formula 1 history. 

Biggest, certainly, but maybe not the most surprising, as stories had emerged down the years, like clockwork, linking Hamilton and Ferrari, with the Briton denying claims a deal had been offered at the Monaco Grand Prix in May 2023.

By February 1st 2024, he was signed, sealed, and delivered as a Ferrari driver.

The honour of the most surprising F1 driver move of all-time goes to the yin to Hamilton's yang, Fernando Alonso, who sent shockwaves through grand prix racing with the announcement 20 years ago today (December 19th, 2005) that he was joining McLaren for 2007. 

Here was the newly crowned F1 world champion, the youngest in history, the man who had breached the Maranello castle and escaped with Michael Schumacher's crown jewels, the man who was now firmly 'the man to beat', the yardstick, announcing he was leaving his Renault team to join the enemy he had just defeated to the title in McLaren. 

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The story of Alonso's bombshell move to McLaren began moments after he had won the 2005 drivers' title in the Brazilian GP, formally ending Schumacher's reign. 

Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen had finished one-two for McLaren, with boss Ron Dennis the representative on the podium. 

As the party waited for the ceremony, Dennis offered his congratulations to the new world champion, and off-hand, enquired whether Alonso would ever be interested in driving for McLaren. 

Alonso, a fan of Ayrton Senna in the iconic McLaren-Honda days of the late 1980s and early 1990s as a young karter, and having just won the title in Senna's backyard, must have felt all his Christmases came at once, in September.

After the season finished, a meeting took place between the two in Japan, where Alonso agreed a three-year contract, but which would not take effect until the 2007 season, allowing Alonso to fulfil the final year with Renault in 2006, the team which had moulded him from a fresh-faced rookie to world champion. 

McLaren would actually go winless in 2006 in the first year of the 2.4L V8 engine formula as the V10s were consigned to history, whilst Dennis was now getting a two-time world champion as Alonso defeated Schumacher in a straight fight. 

Alonso's move had also set the F1 dominos falling. 

Alonso and Raikkonen, the standard-bearers of the post-Schumacher F1 world were never going to be team-mates at this stage of their careers, and with Ferrari retiring Schumacher to make way for Raikkonen for 2007, it was effectively one replacing the other. 

But in mid-2006, Dennis faced another problem after Montoya decided to quit following the United States GP at Indianapolis, joining NASCAR, with Pedro de la Rosa deputising for the rest of the season. 

But for 2007, Dennis had seen enough of his young prodigy, the new GP2 champion, and took the plunge to sign Hamilton as Alonso's team-mate.

The reigning two-time world champion against the rookie driver.

As football manager Mick McCarthy might say: "That went well..."