Rumor: Alonso to re-sign with Alpine

Fernando Alonso is on course to secure a seat at the Alpine team next season, their chief executive officer Laurent Rossi told BBC.

“He is doing great,” Rossi told BBC Sport.

“He is as fast as ever. He is certainly extracting the most out of the car.”

“The car is not incredibly fast and he still manages to get some super-hot laps and qualify the car very well. So far, so good.”

Asked whether Alonso would stay for 2022, Rossi said: “He is doing everything for me to consider exercising this [contractual] option.”

In his earlier career, Alonso earned a reputation as a demanding character inside a team.

But in an exclusive BBC interview, Rossi said: “It is incredibly easy to work with him so far. It has been six months, and I don’t recognize the Fernando that people describe.

“We both expect the same thing from the team. Always challenging any decision, any status quo, to systematically take things a notch up: ‘It is never enough. Getting a point is not good. Getting two points is not good. Finishing second, when it happens, is not good enough. Finishing first – we need to keep being first.’ I like this attitude.

“It is challenging everyone all the time, but very respectfully. And he can do it because he has proven himself, so it is not like he wants to deflect responsibility.”