Fernando Alonso certainly had a Formula One season for the ages in 2023. While he did not win the championship, and placed a distant 4th at the end of the season, his 8 podiums rejuvenated an Aston Martin team that had seen mediocre results since their rebrand and high hopes after the takeover by Lawrence Stroll.
While Alonso is poised to have another great season this year as Aston Martin have worked hard on improvements to their car, he still does not have a contract for next year.
Despite him being committed to Aston Martin’s project, Alonso knows his worth and realises that he is a hot commodity on the driver market, should another team want to snatch him up for 2025.
“I’m probably attractive to other teams, the performance that they saw last year, the commitment.
“There are only three World Champions on the grid and there is only one available.”
It was very straightforward, and he’s not wrong. Max Verstappen has his contact until 2028, and Lewis Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari on a multi-year contract leaves the two-time champion Alonso alone without a contract out of the three F1 champions on the grid.
While he says that he remains committed to Aston Martin, he says that he needs to make the decision himself and go through his view of how his life will pan out, before reaching out to Aston Martin and seeing if they can accomodate. Alonso still remains loya to Aston Martin, however, and wants the team to have the first right to sign him.
“This is a decision that I need to do with myself. I need to think, I need to commit to a team eventually and make sure that I understand that the next few years of my life, it will be that team and 100% of my time.
“Once I make that decision, I want to sit with Aston Martin and say, ‘OK, I made this decision’.
“I would love to continue with this project because I think we made a good step forward in the last year. We built a lot of things together.
“We have this new facility here. We have everything to succeed for the future and I trust this project.
“So that will be my first priority, when I say that I want to speak first with Aston Martin, because I feel part of this project very much.
“If we cannot reach an agreement, and I want to commit to racing F1, I know I have a privileged position.”
