Fernando Alonso is a man possessed behind the wheel of the Aston Martin, no matter what the quality of the car is. This means that since his contract was set to expire at the end of this year, he was linked with many teams who would fit perfectly for a man of his talents.
In fact, teams like Mercedes and Red Bull were linked with getting Alonso for 2025 and beyond, while the 42-year-old had previously stated that he wanted to make up his mind on his F1 future, and then give Aston Martin first right of refusal before he looked elsewhere.
In the end, Aston Martin and Alonso ageeed on a multi-year contract, ending all the speculation. Some of the speculation included the possibility that Alonso could retire after this season and not continue his F1 carrer any further.
At 42, he’s already the oldest driver on the grid, and past the age where most people would retire. This idea of retirement even crossed the mind of Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack. When asked if he was convinced that Alonso would continue his career in F1, Krack said that he wasn’t certain in his driver’s decision:
“No, I was not convinced.
“Fernando was very clear when he joined that the calendar and the travel is draining a lot of energy, especially if you want to do things the way he does them.
“There is no 99%. And that is why, with the calendar like it is, it takes everything out of you. And I think he has said it many times: that there is no life. Either you are 100% in it or not.
“So when you see how he is working, when he’s there [in the garage], how he is interacting, you see that there is only 100% for him. And you understand also that when he says there is no life around that, it is true.
“So considering that I had some concerns that he was going to say: ‘no, I want to do something else in life’, I was very happy to see that he loves F1 more than private life.”
As Alonso previously stated, he wanted to make up his mind before informing Aston Martin of his decision and allowing the team to work out a contract before he contacted other teams. Krack appreciated Alonso’s honesty and his transparency in the entire process.
“Fernando is a man of his word,” said Krack. “He told us that what he communicated to the outside was the same as what he communicated to the inside.
“He said: ‘I need to discuss first with myself, and I need to decide if I want to continue. Then, if I want to continue, I want to discuss first with Aston Martin.’
“This is what happened. And we’re quite happy that it ended the way it did.”
While his announcement may seem early, this was all according to plan for Krack. It looks like this was a self-set deadline by Alonso after plenty of thinking was done about whether he was carrying on in F1 beyond 2024.
“We had always given ourselves some date at which we wanted to take a decision,” he said.
“There was an agreement that we took quite early. And it was really nice to see that just everybody stuck to what he said. So it went actually as we thought it would go.”
