Fernando Alonso: Aston Martin driver sets timeline for future decision and whether he will compete in F1 2027 | F1 News

Fernando Alonso says he hopes to make a decision on his Formula 1 future after the August summer break when he considers whether to extend his record-long career to a 24th season in 2027.

The two-time world champion, who turns 45 in July, joins the team from Alpine in 2023, the final year of his contract with Aston Martin.

Despite Aston Martin and engine supplier Honda’s grim start to the new era of F1 rules this year, Alonso recently said “At the moment, I don’t think it’s that time”. In bringing down the curtain on racing at the top level of motorsport.

Asked about the timeline for deciding what he will do next year at the Miami Grand Prix, Alonso said: “Sometime in the summer, I will have to make a decision.

“At the moment I’m not sitting down with myself to think about it. I haven’t thought deeply about it and I have to talk to my family as well. I have to talk to my people first and decide what to do next year.

“I feel very relieved about it. If I keep running, I think it will be a better season than the second year projects.

“If I stop racing, I know I’ll be racing in another series.”

He added: “I’m open to everything. Maybe after the summer break I won’t really sit down and make a decision with the team. We have to see how the car improves and how we see things for next year.

“I’m connected to this team, to this project. I want to be successful here behind the wheel or to be the wheel without the wheel. Even if I stop racing, you’ll see me in the paddock.”

Despite the team’s current difficulties, Alonso continues to prove Aston Martin’s main driver on track, disqualifying team-mate Lance Stroll for 40 consecutive GPs. He is hopeful that if he decides to run, his bosses will also be interested.

“You can’t be 100 percent sure about it but I’m performing I think well enough to show the team that if the car is competitive I can give them results,” he said.

“I’m helping the team as much as I can. I think it can depend on me.”

‘I don’t want to stop before he gets in my car’ – Will fatherhood affect Alonso’s decision?

Alonso became a father in March when he and partner Melissa Jimenez welcomed their first child together, a boy.

The cancellation of April’s Grands Prix in the Middle East meant Alonso was able to spend extra time at home during the first weeks of his son’s life.

is asked by Sky Sports On whether becoming a father in Miami has in any way changed his thinking about his racing future, Alonso said: “I have some thoughts, I can’t lie. It changes the way you look at life.

“I have to say it’s going the other way. I want to race so he’s watching me race. But until he’s aware of things, it’s probably a few years and I don’t want to race for another four or five years!

“I was wondering, if I race another year or two, if he has any memory or any understanding of what’s going on in the paddock and things like that? I don’t want to stop before he’s in the paddock, or he sits in my car, and that sort of thing.

“These are moments you’ll remember for the rest of your life, so it changes (your thinking about) being a father.”

‘I don’t want to leave the game after being beaten by everyone’

Alonso said that while he would naturally prefer to leave the game on a high note, he said it was more important to him that he moved before he started to feel his competitive slide.

“It’s not always the best thing to leave the sport with a bad taste but these things you can’t choose – when to stop racing,” said Alonso, who was F1 world champion in 2005 and 2006.

“Only (Nico) Rosberg (who retired after winning the 2016 world title) did! It’s hard to choose otherwise. But I feel very comfortable.

“I’m very happy with my career. I’m very happy with what I’ve lived and experienced and what the sport has given me. It’s a gift.

“Since I come back in 2021, it’s a gift to continue racing and feel competitive. I also want to quit the sport one day when I feel fast. I don’t want to quit the sport when I’m beaten by everyone, I feel slow and I make mistakes.

“I know I’m at my 100 percent now and when I feel like that, I want to go.”

Alonso previously stepped away from F1 to compete in other series in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

He won the World Endurance Championship – during an extended 2018-19 campaign that featured two wins at the showpiece Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota – while he returned for two more attempts at the Indianapolis 500 and made his Dakar Rally debut.

On what his post-F1 career might hold, Alonso said: “As I’ve said many times, the call will be a possibility.

“If one day I win endurance racing, Formula 1 and Rally Cross Country, that would probably be unprecedented and that’s something that’s very interesting.

“I drove the prototype, the (Aston Martin) Valkyrie, two weeks ago and it was a great feeling too. Maybe Le Mans again one day.

“I’m not too worried when I stop Formula 1. I’ll continue racing in one way or another and I’ll definitely link up with the team in a different role in the future.

“Either way, I will relax and I will be active in a way when I stop Formula 1.”

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