F1: Alpine felt Alonso was too old

Fernando Alonso is in his final season at Alpine. The Spaniard decided to switch to Aston Martin, replacing four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who is retiring at the end of the season.

Alpine boss Laurent Rossi revealed the team wanted to keep Alonso. Nonetheless, they could not offer a contract for more than two years as they had Oscar Piastri for the next three years. The French team boss revealed they offered the Spaniard a one-plus-one contract and a further opportunity to race in the Endurance series after two years. Rossi said:

“We really wanted to keep him. But we couldn’t commit for more than two years because with Piastri we had an option over three years. In the long term, it was always clear to us that we had to focus on the future. And the future was called Oscar.”

“We offered Fernando the maximum we could. That was a one-plus-one contract. He could have raced endurance races for us after two years. That was the plan. We wanted to keep the man of the present and secure the man of the future.”Fernando Alonso wanted a commitment of at least two years. Alpine were not ready considering the Spaniard is 41 years old.

Rossi revealed:

“The slump can come from one year to the next at this age. So we couldn’t commit ourselves for so long.”

Rossi revealed that Alpine were not resentful of his move to Aston Martin. Rossi said:

“I can only assume that he got an offer elsewhere on better terms and decided to do so. We are sad about this, but not resentful. It is his right to choose something else. We are parting ways for the better and know that Fernando will do his best until the end of the season.”