Has there ever been a less-hailed two-time F1 champion than Fernando Alonso? Projected salary numbers for top F1 drivers get thrown around all the time, and for some reason Kimi Raikkonen always gets mentioned as the top paid driver.

Yes, he's undeniably quick, but the fact that Alonso wasn't the most in-demand driver since Michael Schumacher is pretty puzzling to me. He won his titles after 5 years of Ferrari domination, even though in neither season he had the best car. Kimi's McLaren in 2005 was the class of the field, and Michael's Ferrari seemed like the car to beat in 2006.

In my opinion, of all the top F1 drivers currently, Alonso has the inside track on potentially reeling in some of Michael's records. Case in point, at age 25, he's won the title 2 times and already has 16 wins, 15 poles, and 39 podiums to his name.

Now he jumped into a very competitive McLaren. Maybe a 3rd title to his belt by age 26? Certainly within the realm of possibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Alonso