Fernando Alonso has rebuffed rumours that he will be retiring from Formula 1 at the end of the season, despite being the oldest driver on the grid and Alpine ready to promote Oscar Piastri to a race seat.
Fernando Alonso, who is approaching his 41st birthday, says he would like to stay in Formula 1 for another couple of years.
With teammate Esteban Ocon locked in at Alpine until 2024 and the team anxious to promote the talented Oscar Piastri, there had been conjecture that Alonso would stand down at the end of the season to make room for the young Australian.
However, Alonso dismissed rumours that he was considering retiring from Formula One, claiming that his desire and driving abilities are still intact.
“Next year or the next two years I would love to continue and keep driving because I feel at my best right now and it would be wrong to watch F1 from home while I still feel 100 per cent of my abilities,” Alonso told BBC Sport.
“When I feel it is not that way, I will be the first to raise my hand and stop because F1 is very demanding; you have to sacrifice a lot of things in life to keep racing. But at the moment it is still worth doing it.”
40-year old Alonso, who left McLaren in 2018 and joined Alpine for 2021, is the oldest driver on the F1 grid by more than three years, but he asserted that age has no influence on his ability, adding that he felt rejuvenated after a two-year break from the sport.
“Age is not a factor in motorsport,” said Alonso. “In other sports it is different. You have to rely on your physical condition and things like that, but in motorsport I would [rather] have one new front or rear wing than three years less than I have. That would give me more performance for sure.”
“The two years out of the sport was enough to completely reset my mind and also the physical condition and be happy training and preparing the races.”
“I am as good as when I was 25 or 30.”
