Fernando Alonso, at this early stage, is open to extending his contract with Alpine – but he won’t make a decision on his future until at least the summer.
Back in August 2021, Alonso and Alpine “made it official” with the two-time World Champion extending his stay with the team to cover the 2022 season, the first chapter in Formula 1’s regulation overhaul.
Alonso cited the new regulations as the main reason for his decision to return to Formula 1 ahead of the 2021 campaign following a two-season absence, but he is now going to need to see further evidence that he can still realise his dream of adding a third World Championship title to his trophy cabinet.
At the moment, Alonso would be willing to extend his contract for another season, yet that could change and therefore he won’t be rushing into any decisions.
“As of now, I would say yes,” Alonso is quoted as having told the German broadcaster RTL when asked about his Formula 1 future.
“I really feel the strength to continue. But I’ll only decide in the middle of the year.”
At Alpine’s A522 launch in Paris on Monday, Alonso made it clear that he wishes to fight for podiums in 2022, as that will give him the confidence that potentially race wins, and perhaps even World titles, could follow in the years to come.
He said: “Hopefully it [the new rules] will allow us to fight for podiums, because if you fight for podiums every weekend then eventually victory will come.
“And if you fight for podiums and wins then maybe next year you’re a world Championship contender.
“It has to come step by step, and we want to take the first step now.”
While Alonso was much more open about his objectives and plans for his future in Formula 1, the same cannot be said about how he feels the A522 will stack up against their rivals in terms of how the team have initially interpreted the new regulations.
“No, I’ll leave that for you and social media!” Alonso joked. “They are all experts of every detail when actually nobody has a clue how each car will go.
“I like the look of them in general, as a concept, but I have nothing to say in terms of performance.”
Meanwhile, Alpine’s technical director, Matt Harman, has disclosed that the team “don’t fundamentally know everything about how we are going to operate” the new Renault engine, and so they are going to be relying a lot on their simulation data being accurate.
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