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Barcelona
Former world champion Fernando Alonso is not considering retirement from Formula One racing at the age of 40 and is rather hoping to get a contract extension at Alpine.
Alonso told the BBC in an interview published on Thursday ahead of his Spanish home grand prix in Barcelona he sees a chance to continue when his two year-deal expires after the current season.
“Next year or the next two years I would love to continue and keep driving because I feel at my best right now and it would be wrong to watch F1 from home and from the living room while I still feel 100% of my abilities,” he said.
“We didn’t talk officially,” Alonso says. “We just had a couple of coffees. But, yeah, I think the possibility will be there.
“The motivation is still there to win and to close that gap [to the front] even if we know how extremely difficult it is going to be.”
World champion in 2005 and 2006, Alonso has not won a race in nine years since his Barcelona success 2013 in a Ferrari.
He quit F1 to compete in other motor sport for a while but returned last year.
Alonso also said he knows from his past experience how seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton must be feeling after not being able to challenge for the top in a not competitive car after dominating the past years.
“This is the nature of the sport. Sometimes you have a better car, sometimes you have not such a good car and you still need to fight and make some progress,” Alonso said.
“It happened to me when I won the two championships. I was beating Michael Schumacher. This was a big topic, but my car was more reliable at that time and had very good performance and you cannot praise enough that package because the headlines will still be the driver. And with Lewis it’s the same.
“He deserves everything he’s achieved in the past but this year is a good reminder that in all those records and numbers there is a big part on what you have in your hands as a package in the car.”
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20/05/2022
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