When looking from far away, Oxford is not a very big city even though its fame stretches far and wide, a legacy of the ancient university. However this city in the heart of England numbers only 130,000 people in its population and when eager media came to town this week trying to find the new world champion, and looked up the electoral register, they came to the conclusion that there couldn’t be another Fernando Alonso in the same town…

They couldn’t have been more wrong!

Instead, 27 year old Fernando Alonso – also from northern Spain – works in publishing, rents a room in a student house, and instead of being crowned F1 champion in Brazil last Sunday, is finding all the fan mail that keeps dropping through his letterbox a little bemusing!

“I think they find out that the real Fernando lives in Oxfordshire then look up my address and mix us up. They say things like ‘you are a great driver’ which is funny as I don’t have a car and haven’t passed my driving test!” he told the Sun. “When I got the first letter I soon realised it was not meant for me. She said she loved me. It was from a girl called Astra from Holland. She asked me to ring her.”

So while the Renault driver celebrates with the rest of his team and homeland, the other Fernando is a little apprehensive about what all this success and fame might bring to his letterbox.

“Now he is getting more and more famous, I think I will start getting more and more letters,” he remarked, a little apprehensively…