Alonso to put brakes on 17-season F1 career

DOUBLE world champion Fernando Alonso will retire from Formula One at the end of the season, his team McLaren said yesterday.

The 37-year-old Spaniard is competing in his 17th F1 season and his fifth with McLaren, and has been widely tipped to race in the Indianapolis 500 next year as he attempts to win the “Triple Crown of Motorsport”.

Alonso, a double Monaco Grand Prix winner, won the Le Mans 24 Hours on his debut with Toyota in June and is ninth in the F1 drivers’ standings.

“After 17 wonderful years in this amazing sport, it’s time for me to make a change and move on,” Alonso said. “There are still several grands prix to go this season, and I will take part in them with more commitment and passion than ever.”

Alonso thanked F1 chief executive Chase Carey and the sport’s owner Liberty Media Corp for trying to get him to change his mind and left the door open on a possible return.

“I know (McLaren) will come back stronger and better in the future and it could be the right moment for me to be back in the series; that would make me really happy,” he added.

“I made this decision some months ago and it was a firm one.”

Alonso started his F1 career with the now-defunct Minardi team in 2001 and moved to Renault two years later. He became the youngest world champion in F1 history with Renault in 2005, winning again the following year. - Reuters