Alonso believes Aston Martin can become a ‘powerful team’ (2024)

Fernando Alonso has shed further light on his decision to sign a new long-term deal with Aston Martin, with the Spaniard acknowledging that he wanted to ensure he had made the right decision for what he deems likely to be his “last contract”.

Amid continuing speculation over the driver market for 2025, it was confirmed in the days after the Japanese Grand Prix that Alonso had signed a multi-year agreement to stay with the squad through to 2026, the year in which a new range of technical regulations will be introduced into Formula 1.

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While the two-time world champion’s name had been linked to other teams on the grid, Alonso opened up about his reasons for staying – not only with Aston Martin but in the sport as a whole – as he spoke to the media ahead of the next race on the calendar in China.

Asked how easy the decision was to remain with the British outfit for 2025 and beyond, Alonso responded: “It’s never an easy time when you have to make some decisions, especially right now for me it’s probably my last contract, so I wanted to make sure that it was the right decision first of all to keep racing in Formula 1, and to have the strength and the motivation to keep racing for a few more years from my side.

“And then after that just making sure that the team has the target and the goal for the next few years to be ambitious and to try to keep getting better and better. It was a very happy decision for me, I’m obviously extremely proud to represent Aston Martin for the next few years.

“We started the journey last year in a very good way and we keep on working, so [I’m] extremely proud [and] happy, and let’s see what we can do.”

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With Aston Martin set to partner with Honda from 2026, as well as continuing to develop their facilities at their base near Silverstone, Alonso is confident that the team can potentially become a “very powerful” force on the grid.

“The new regulations in 2026 are going to be a possibility for everyone to mix the cars a little bit and have an opportunity,” the 42-year-old said of the squad’s future prospects.

“Obviously we will be with Honda, we will be the only team with the power unit from Honda which obviously is a little bit different from being a customer engine now with Mercedes, so hopefully we have a little bit of an improvement there.

“Also I think with Aramco, the biofuels and the sustainability that will come into 2026, we have a little bit of an opportunity there as well, and the team is just getting better and better – new facilities, new campus, new wind tunnel coming this summer, so there are a lot of things in place to be a very powerful team in the future and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Several teams are yet to announce their driver line-ups for 2025, meaning that Alonso’s move was confirmed relatively early in comparison. On whether it was important to him to get his plans sorted at this earlier stage, Alonso denied that this was the case.

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“No, not really. We just sat together after Japan and we arrived to a conclusion, and an agreement was reached in one or two days, so it was very, very simple,” he explained. “Once we got the agreement, we announced it. Everything is a little bit more simple than what it looks from outside.

“There are a lot of rumours, a lot of things going on for different teams and different drivers and deadlines here, deadlines there. For us we were just loyal to each other, we just kept our word, and once we signed it and we agreed on something we announced it, so for us it was much more simple than maybe for other people.”

While we await further news on next year’s grid, the focus remains on 2024 and this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix. With Aston Martin currently just one point behind Mercedes in the battle for fourth place of the constructors’ standings, Alonso and the team will be hoping for a good outing at the Shanghai International Circuit.