ALONSO I NEEDED AFRESH CHALLENGE
Doublechampdecidestostepawayfromf1for2019
Fernando Alonso has turned his back on Formula 1 to pursue a new motorsport challenge next season.
While the two-time title winner has not closed the door on grand prix racing completely, he said he wanted to reignite his love for motorsport with a fresh campaign in 2019.
He is committed to race as part of Toyota’s World Endurance Championship challenge next year, and has also been linked with a return to Indycar racing after his spectacular race-leading debut at the Indy 500 in 2017.
“I have other bigger challenges than F1 can offer right now,” said the 37-year-old. “I think I am driving at the best level of my career. I achieved much more than I dreamed when I started [in F1] in 2001 and right now, let’s say, the action on track is not what I dream of when I joined F1.”
Fernando Alonso says that his decision to step away from grand prix racing next season will offer him a bigger challenge as he looks to contest other series.
The Mclaren driver announced last week that he would take a sabbatical from F1 after a frustrating couple of seasons with the Woking operation.
The 37-year-old, a two-time world-beater, hasn’t finished higher than 10th in the F1 standings since rejoining Mclaren in 2015, and his last grand prix win was for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013.
Alonso missed the Monaco Grand Prix in 2017 to take part in the Indy 500, but retired from the race in a Mclaren-andretti-run car. He has also dovetailed his F1 commitments with a full-season programme with Toyota this year in the World Endurance Championship and he won Le Mans during his maiden attack on the race.
“I have other bigger challenges than F1 can offer right now,” said the Spaniard. “[F1] is a sport that definitely has some positive things and I have been enjoying for 17 years of my life. I think I achieved much more than I dreamed when I started in 2001, and right now, let’s say the action on track is not the one I dream of when I joined F1, [or] when I was in different series.”
What’s next?
Alonso’s decision to quit Mclaren has prompted the team to sign Carlos Sainz for its campaign in 2019 ( see sidebar).
So what is next for the Spaniard? He is committed to Toyota’s World Endurance Championship programme for the super-season which runs through to Le Mans in June 2019.
Alonso says he will take time to digest his decision to step down from F1 before making a commitment to a future programme, but sources suggest that he is likely to combine his Toyota outings with a challenge in Indycar.
Alonso also said that he had not turned his back on F1 completely, and could be tempted back to a competitive seat in the future.
“With the 21 races, the commitment, the total dedication to the sport for so many years, it is something that I need to evaluate and think what I will do next year,” he said.
“I think the door open is more because I think because I am driving at the best level of my career now. And why close doors if anything could happen in the future? I am still young. I am not 45 years old. I feel strong and I am doing this year 27 races,
so my thinking is to stop. And that is why I stop. But who knows [about the future]?
“If I win a third F1 world championship one day, how much will it do for my career and my legacy? Or if I do something that has no precedents in motorsport, how much that will give to my career, or to my legacy? You put in the balance and you decide and everyone will decide different things. I decide one thing and I am happy.”
Alonso said that an offer to test an Indycar had been made in the wake of his decision to walk away from F1, but he was not going to jump into any choice about his precise destination for 2019.
“It could be interesting [to test an Indycar] because I obviously enjoyed the Indy 500 a lot last year, but I don’t know that car on a normal set-up or a normal circuit, so it can be a possibility.
“I’m thinking [about the future],” he said. “I will not probably decide or be ready to confirm anything until a couple of months. Maybe October or something like that. It is going to be a long wait and a lot of predictions I guess.”
F1 disillusionment
Alonso said that he was bored with the action in F1, and felt that it was becoming too predictable, which is part of the reason he has decided to step away from that level of motorsport.
“The action on track in my opinion I feel is very poor,” said Alonso. “In fact what we talk about more in F1 is off track. We talk about polemics, we talk about radio messages, we talk about all these things, and when we talk so many times about those things, it is a bad sign.
“It was because the on track action was very poor on [any] weekend, and that is what I feel in F1 now, and I think there are other series that maybe offer better action, more joy and more happiness, so that is what I try to find.”
Alonso said that F1’s pecking order and the difficulty of shaking that up meant that other forms of racing were more appealing to him than remaining in the top flight.
Alonso said: “We can [write down and predict] the first 15 positions with maybe one or two mistakes, so how predictable everything became is tough. We go to Barcelona and we conduct the first day of testing and you know what you will do until November in Abu Dhabi and it is tough.
“For young drivers it is tough because they just hope next year the team does an unbelievable step or they receive a call from one or two teams. It became difficult for ambitious drivers, it will be tough for the future if things don’t change.”