System 1 | Alonso considered two things before moving on to Aston Martin F1

Fernando Alonso has revealed that he considered two main factors before deciding to sign a brand new contract with the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.

The Spaniard admitted he wasn’t sure if he would survive the 24-race calendar, putting extra pressure on everyone involved.

Alonso, who revealed that his close friends would attend more events, admits he used the first Grands prix to assess whether he was ready to keep up this pace.

“I had a few things to evaluate. First of all, it wasn’t the race factor. Honestly, it was the transportation factor.”

“Looking at this schedule, I was a little worried that it would be heavy for me. There are all the pre-season promises and all the photo shoots, press photos and car launches.

“All these things are very necessary in terms of energy for drivers in general, and for me, especially in this part of my work.”

“So, I said, let me go through this difficult time, which I call the beginning of the marketing year and media and things like that, and then this difficult time of travel, time zones, d” planes and that kind of thing. . If I feel like I don’t like what I’m doing, I think I better not keep running.”

“If I finish this time of year and enjoy the race and everything else doesn’t weigh me down, I can continue. And that’s the first thing I wanted to clarify with myself during the first two races.”

Alonso also revealed that he is keen to see where Aston Martin finds itself in the competition in the early stages of 2024 as it still aims to return to winning ways.

“So, obviously, I wanted to see how we did.”

“You know, there is no guarantee that if I feel good and I stay at Aston, things will go well. We can have a difficult car to drive, it is not competitive, seeing no progress in the team, I see negative sides. .”

“But to be honest, yes, we didn’t start on the podium, okay, but I think we are very close, the top four teams behind Red Bull.”

“There will be some races where we will be more competitive, others where we will be less competitive.”

“But also in the first four races we introduced four new parts of the car. Every race we had an improvement. So that’s encouraging and nice to see.”

“So I think the team is moving on. It’s not fast enough in Formula 1, it’s a very demanding sport, a very demanding environment.”

“But 18 months ago, 22 months ago, we had a very small old Jordan building. And now we are half tenth with Ferrari, with Mercedes, with the best teams.

“So that kind of development is exactly what I’m looking for in this project. Oh, the intention of this project is to win. So I want to be a part of it.”

Alonso admitted to having held talks with other F1 teams before restarting with Aston Martin and said retirement was not a big option.

“I think it never occurred to me to retire when I had to decide. Above all, I think that when I stop Formula 1, I will race somewhere else, maybe in Dakar or something like that.”

“So for me it is very difficult to think about life without the steering wheel in your hands, it will not happen or not in a short time.”

“But no, I think I was 99 percent confident that I would continue racing next year. So retirement was not an option.”