If asked, I may have said that Fernando Alonso’s decision to stay at McLaren next year may have a lot to do with his compensation, McLaren’s desire to keep him and find reasons to retain his services including Indy 500 or Le Mans etc. Lots of moving targets, those are just a few.
I found today’s quotes interesting because his future at McLaren may more to do with his future in F1 period and not how happy Zak Brown and company can make him.
“The last championship car I had was 2007,” said Alonso, who has not won a race since driving for Ferrari in 2013 and claimed the second of his titles with Renault in 2006.
“All the rest has been always quite far off from the performance at the top or the winning team that season.
“So, 11 years after that moment, I don’t think there is a problem [with not having a car to win titles].
“The biggest thing for me is the direction that Formula 1 goes.
“I don’t think too much in how competitive you will be next year because it’s impossible to predict, it’s just about the sport.
“It’s a constructors’ world championship, it’s not a drivers’ world championship.”
I think we’ve all read enough veiled and outright comments from drivers, fans and even team bosses to know that F1 is running out of time with its current form and regulations. There are some who are more than happy with the direction F1 is taking but there seems to be a majority who are not. Alonso is one of them.
As I said on our website: F1 went from being a series that exploited every resource, skill and regulation in order to go faster than the other team and win races to a series that is all about conserving resources, tires, fuel, man and machine to be slightly quicker than the other team and get a win.
It does make you wonder if Ross Brawn is going far enough with the proposed 2021 regulations in order to keep a driver like Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel or Raikkonen interested.
Hat Tip: Autosport
