Alonso retirement date set, says Briatore his manager – Fernando Alonso is an enigma amongst the pantheon of Formula One drivers. He is way down the list of oldest F1 drivers most of whom raced in the 1950’s and 60’s yet at age 43 he has chance of becoming the fifth oldest driver to win a Grand Prix.
That record is held by the legendary Jack Brabham who won his final race age 43 years, 339 days in the 1970 South Africa Grand Prix. Fernando will be over 45 when he completes his newly signed contract with Aston Martin and with Adrian Newey reportedly joining the Silverstone based team, the Spaniard will have high hopes of one last hurrah.
Fernando stands as the most experienced driver in F1 history, having made a total of 391 grand prix starts since his debut with Minardi in 2001. And with ten Grand Prix remaining this year and another 48 scheduled until the end of 2026, the Spaniard has the opportunity to extend this run to a whopping 499 starts at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Briatore reveals “last year”
The double world champion (2005/6) has been managed the majority of his life by the larger than life character that is Flavio Briatore. The Italian was the team boss at Renault when Fernando became the youngest pole-sitter, youngest race winner, youngest world champion, and youngest two-time champion (2005/6) in the sport’s history at the time.
Briatore became a ‘special consultant’ for Renault/Alpine in June this year and speaking this week on the Formula For Success podcast, Briatore revealed that Alonso is likely to retire at the end of 2026 as things stand.
“Our last year will be 2026 for the moment,” revealed Briatore although the wording in his Aston Martin contract may allow for another season at the behest of team owner Lawrence Stroll.
With Adrian Newey strongly tipped to be on this way to Aston, Fernando will believe he still has race winning opportunities and a potential third championship in front of him should the Silverstone team ace the all new 2026 car and power unit design regulations under Newey.
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Verstappen could send Fernando into retirement
Yet the billionaire boss of Aston Martin has remained committed to keeping a seat in the team open for his son and were Max Verstappen be tempted to be reunited with Newey, it would be Fernando who surely gives way for the current world champion.
Verstappen has hinted strongly he will remain with Red Bull until at least 2026 to see how their new power unit project and car design performs that season. Despite having a contract with the Milton Keynes based squad until 2028, Verstappen will take his services elsewhere if Pierre Wache and the design team fail to replicate the success he has had under the Newey years.
Briatore believes Alonso is as good as he was when winning world titles aged 24 and reflected on his decisions at the most recent GP in Belgium.
“I believe [at Spa], for example, he was very smart. He did one pit stop and this was the way to go, because of his experience. The performance is there. You see the performance of Fernando, it’s there. It’s not a question of him losing concentration, during the race he’s always there.”
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Fernando remains relentless
The Italian outlines the relentless desire of the Spanish driver unlike Lewis Hamilton who at times requires encouragement to continue to press when he feels the car won’t give him what he wants.
“If he’s 11th, he wants to be 10th. If he’s 10th, he want to be ninth. He wants the car to be competitive. He’s qualifying well, he’s racing well,” added the Italian.
“I don’t know, honestly, if he wants to stop with 2026 as his last year or if he wants to go ahead. Honestly, I don’t know. It depends on the feeling he has about racing and the timing, I don’t know if he’ll have a family at the time and whatever.”
“But for sure, he is somebody unique. I’ve never seen somebody like that, so determined every day, every day, every day. Never give up. Unbelievable.”
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Flavio believes the secret to Alonso’s longevity in F1 is due to his relentless discipline which sees him “more fit now” than when winning his titles 20 years ago.
“I’ve been managing Fernando Alonso for 22 years now. We’ve had 22 years of marriage. Fernando is still very difficult to understand because Fernando is still motivated like a young driver.
“He’s super fit, maybe more fit now than when he was driving for me. He’s living in Monaco. I know he’s doing a bicycle ride every day, he’s doing 60-70-80 kilometres every day.
“He goes to the gym every day. Every time we go to dinner he’s very, very careful. He’s never cheating with the food. He’s unbelievable.”
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Iconic F1 moments from Alonso
Fernando has delivered some iconic F1 moments both good and bad. In Japan 2005 he hung on around the outside of Schumacher at the 130R turn – one of the fastest and most dangerous on the F1 calendar at the time.
During his return to McLaren who were powered by the newly arrived Honda, Fernando over team radio described the power unit as similar to this used in GP2. Yet another failure of the Honda engine in Sau Paulo saw Fernando find a deck chair out on the track and kick back for the remainder of the session basking in the sunshine.
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Elusive motorsport triple crown still on
Alonso left F1 for a sabbatical but during that time he won Le Mans twice (2018/9) and the WEC in 2018. He is the only man alive presently capable of completing motorsports triple crown which includes an F1 title, Le Mans and the Indy 500.
Just one man in history has completed this feat and it was the legendary Graham Hill. Fernando entered the Indy500 on three occasions (2017/19/20), qualified top ten from 33 and led laps of the “greatest spectacle in motorsport,” though the win remains for now to have eluded him.
Fernando Alonso looks set to retire from F1 in just over two more seasons and while he isn’t the most decorated of his peers, his career has been legendary. And there is a remote chance he could yet make motorsport history which eclipses Hamilton’s and Schumacher’s F1 world seven titles.
Newey’s replacement makes worrying admission
2024 has been a year of shocks in Formula One land. Lewis Hamilton dropped the bombshell pre-season he was leaving for Ferrari then the most decorated engineer in the sports history, Adrian Newey, revealed his time at Red Bull would end next year.
The there was much talk of Newey joining Ferrari which Lewis Hamilton claimed would be his “dream,” yet the Italian media claimed recently that this was not on the cards and in fact Newey would be moving to Aston Martin on a deal reported to be worth a whopping $100m.
Newey had been restless for some time and so Red Bull afforded him the opportunity to work on other projects as well as Formula One team. He worked on the Gran Turismo 5 video game, the Aston Martin Valkyrie – and he’s also responsible to see through to the end the forthcoming RB17, which will be Red Bull’s first supercar… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
are you mad? giuseppe was 44 when he won a championship and juan manuel was 47 when he won his last.