28/02/2024
NEWS STORY
Weeks after claiming that he could continue racing until he is 50, Fernando Alonso says he will probably make a decision on his future a "few races" into the coming season.
"The number I will keep racing, a few years ago I would have said 42, 41 is the limit," he said earlier this month. "But now after last year, when I saw myself motivated and performing well, I was thinking maybe that I can keep racing a few more years.
"This winter, I have been exceeding a little bit the physical expectations and tests I did, so now I would say that if you are motivated and if you want to commit, you can drive to 48 and 49 or 50..."
Indeed, in terms of his motivation in 2023, such were some of his performances, not least in Brazil, that the Spanish veteran is being linked with the upcoming vacancies at both Mercedes and Red Bull.
"I'm probably the only champion available for '25, so I have a good position," he said at the time. "At the same time, when I make the decision if I want to keep racing or not for the future, first and the only talk that I will have at the beginning is with Aston Martin, because this will be my only one priority."
Speaking in Bahrain today, the veteran of the most races in the history of the sport, perhaps reflecting on pre-season testing, didn't seem quite so enthusiastic about extending his career, admitting that he will wait and see how the opening phase of the season plays out.
"First of all, I need to decide if I want to keep racing," he said, "that would be the first thing that I need to decide in a few weeks, or in a few races' time.
"I feel great now," he continued, "but it's a demanding calendar. Then, in 2026, there are a different set of regulations as well which maybe are tempting or maybe not, I don't know.
"But let's see, as I said at the car launch, I will wait for few races to decide."
The big surprise of the opening phase of last season, until its development programme fell to pieces and McLaren stages its amazing turnaround, the Spaniard was unable, or unwilling, to give insight into where he believes the Silverstone-based outfit stands heading into this season.
"Let's wait a couple of races," he said. "Bahrain is a very specific track in terms of characteristics, so we will have to go through Saudi Arabia, Australia, maybe even Japan, to really have an order between the performance of the teams.
"But I think the car is a step forward," he insisted, "which is the first goal for winter testing, compared to last year. Everything has delivered as expected.
"Maybe our step between last year and this year is good enough or not good enough, we will find out, as I said, in the first couple of races."
Mindful of the manner in which the team's form fell away last year, the veteran beleives that lessons have been learned.
"What I see in the team is a different approach than 2023, when we started with a good baseline and it was a shock for us, maybe, how good it was at the beginning. Then we were not a big team also off-track, in terms of developing the car and things like that. We learned a lot of lessons last year.
"So in the way of becoming a contender for the championship in the future, I think it was an important season for Aston Martin. I think in 2024, we start with a good baseline, yes, but with a lot of things in the pipeline for the rest of the season.
"So it will be interesting to see if we can keep the pace of development of the car compared to the top teams, which obviously we didn't meet those expectations last year and we want to improve in that regard."
The only driver on the 2024 who raced in the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix twenty years ago, Alonso warned that the Bahrain International Circuit is not a litmus test in terms of revealing the pecking order.
"It's quite unique here, especially with the asphalt and the characteristics of the race," he said. "Very rear-limited in terms of degradation. So I think we really need to wait a few races to set the competitive order of all the teams.
"Also, we do a lot of testing here in the winter, it's the only track that we test, so between the test and the race, you can mix a little bit the order and be confused. So I would not pay too much attention to the results just with this first race if I was you."