Fernando Alonso fulfills his last year of contract with Aston Martin in Formula 1. The team seems interested in keeping his services, but there are some uncertainties for a potential renewal.
The driver is 42 years old and has not completely ruled out retiring for good. On the other hand, opportunities may arise in other teams. One of them is Mercedes, which has a seat to fill knowing that Lewis Hamilton is leaving for Ferrari.
However, this is an option that Alonso categorically excludes for his future: ‘I had a lot of fun and had one of my best weekends in terms of driving, I am 44 seconds behind the leader, so [Mercedes] does not seem so attractive to me. Mercedes is behind, so it is not attractive to me,’ he said quoted by the Motorsport.com website after the Japanese GP.
So far in 2024, Alonso has only not beaten both Mercedes drivers – George Russell and Hamilton – at the Bahrain GP. At the moment, he is eighth in the championship with the same points as Russell and 14 more than Hamilton. In terms of teams, despite Lance Stroll’s inconsistency, Aston Martin is fifth just one point behind Mercedes.