'It's not my biggest priority' – Alonso in no hurry to make call on his Aston Martin future

The Formula 1 silly season stepped up a gear this week with the confirmations that Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz will stay at Williams, and that Max Verstappen will remain with Red Bull until 2030.

The latter announcement appears to put at end to any possibility of any dramatic shake-ups among the top four teams, and with Verstappen now out of the game, the driver with the biggest question mark over his future is Fernando Alonso.

Understandably, given the poor form of the Aston Martin AMR26 in the first half of the season, the Spaniard has been reluctant to commit but there’s also a bigger picture of whether or not he wants to stay in F1 at all, even if the Aston seat is his for the taking. And the team has indicated that it is indeed Alonso’s decision to make.

“The discussion has been going on for many months already,” chief trackside officer Mike Krack said in Zandvoort on Thursday. “I think Fernando was always saying that he will take a decision around the summertime, and I think we will see a decision in the coming weeks. I think we're waiting for his decision, as I said, and then we will see.”

Asked if anyone else was in the frame Krack added: “We've always said that the focus is to continue with Fernando, and as I said, we are quite confident that we will reach a good outcome. On the other hand, we have to respect also Fernando's request to make his own decision, and we have to wait for that.”

It’s a curious situation, because there don’t appear to be too many obvious candidates waiting to step in should Alonso decide not to continue. And, having employed Sebastian Vettel prior to Alonso, team owner Lawrence Stroll would clearly want to have a proven winner in the car.

Sainz could have been an option, but he is now off the market, while any hopes that Stroll may have had of engineering a Verstappen/Adrian Newey/Honda reunion in the next couple of years are evidently over.

One could argue that the longer the Alonso decision takes the harder it will be for the team to replace him, as the pool of available drivers shrinks. And the curious aspect is Alonso has made it clear that, if he steps out of the cockpit, he will continue with Aston in another capacity, and logically it’s thus in his interest that the team finds the best qualified replacement.

Does it all point to the fact that both sides know that he will continue come what may? Alonso himself wasn’t giving too much away when he met the media on Thursday and was asked what his timeline is.

“I don't have any,” he said. “I just came from holiday now, so I will see in the next days or weeks – or months! Let’s see.

"I know Lawrence is coming this weekend, so I will have a nice lunch with him, or coffee, and maybe Monza – I don't know when he's coming next. I will have to go to the factory soon as well to do Madrid in the simulator. So maybe if Lawrence is around, or Adrian, I will sit also with them. So maybe in the next weeks.”

He also insisted that he hasn’t made his mind up yet.

“Formula 1 has been and it will be always my life, and my heart is here,” he said. “I will be with this team in one role or in another for the long term. It's not about myself, or about who is driving next year, or if I'm driving next year or three more years.

“It's sitting with Lawrence and with Adrian, and if the need for the team is for me to drive, I will consider, I will be happy. If I can be more valuable in another position, I will consider and I will be happy as well. But I need to drive something, for sure.

“I need to race; I need to feel the adrenaline. I'm a competitor, and I have other challenges in my head, as I said many times, to win one day Dakar or to try again Indy 500 or whatever is coming next. And also winning in Formula 1 a third World Championship, that will be obviously the ultimate dream.

“Is that possible? I don't know how long it will take to achieve that performance for this team. If it's going to be a very long time, maybe I'm not behind the wheel. But that's something that is all in my head.”

Alonso turned 45 last month, but he insists that age is not an issue, and that F1 can’t be compared to other sports.

“This is the normal trend,” he said. “You have a certain age that you are at your peak, and then you have to perform. But this is not football. This is not athletics. This is not NBA. We raced in Qatar, I think it was 2023, and everyone was semi-dead in the parc ferme, and I was fine, and I was doing the interviews in the TV pen.

“So this is a different animal. There is someone that is using 100% of their brain capacity and physical abilities to drive the car, and maybe Max Verstappen is using 10%, because he's on another level. So it depends. So yeah, age is not a problem. It's just the motivation, the fun, what remains to be achieved.

“There are drivers that have never been in the podium, drivers that never won a race, drivers that dream to become champion one day. I have obviously those goals as well, and that appetite.

“But I have also bigger ambitions as well, when I took the sabbatical years, to be a more complete driver and to learn different things as well, not only specific in Formula 1.”

Alonso also insisted that his focus is on the Zandvoort weekend, where a new engine and unpredictable weather could create an opportunity.

“I’m happy here,” he said. “I'm here to help Aston as well. I feel fast, I feel motivated. And yeah, let's see what happens. But honestly, I didn't think about my future until I entered the room here, and I'm answering all these questions!

“We have this new engine, I saw the forecast for the weekend, we have a small upgrade also I think on the chassis as well. There is a new comfort thing around the knee area. I was speaking with the engineers now, so my head is completely into this weekend, not in the future. I understand the attention can be more into the future – but it's not my biggest priority.”