Fernando Alonso has revealed that he planned to leave F1 after the 2009 season, thinking his contract with McLaren would be his last.
The two-time F1 World Champion signed a three-year deal with McLaren in late 2005 and intended for it to be his final contract in the sport.
Alonso began his F1 career with Minardi in 2001 and worked his way to the top by winning consecutive World Championships with Renault in 2005 and 2006.
At the end of the 2005 season, Alonso signed a three-year agreement to move to McLaren for 2007. This decision complicated his relationship with Renault during his championship-defending year, which he managed to win successfully.
Alonso was set to race for McLaren in 2007, 2008, and 2009, but the deal fell apart after the first season due to a strained relationship. The arrival of the talented Lewis Hamilton led to a lack of team orders, and the ‘Spygate’ scandal caused a bitter conflict between Alonso and team boss Ron Dennis.
Alonso returned to Renault in 2008 and then joined Ferrari for five years starting in 2010. He made an unexpected return to McLaren in 2015, but after four disappointing seasons, he left F1 for two years. He then came back with Alpine (previously Renault) before joining Aston Martin for 2023.
Fernando Alonso has had a remarkable career, and at 43 years old, he still shows no signs of slowing down as he reaches the 400 Grand Prix milestone.
On the Beyond The Grid podcast, he spoke with host Tom Clarkson about this achievement and reflected on how his 19-year-old self, starting his first race in Melbourne in 2001, would view his career.
“I was not really thinking too much about the future,” he said. “I was a driver that, you know, the dream was coming alive, driving for Formula 1, the first race. I would say that I didn’t have a clear road map into my career, I didn’t know exactly what was the next race, what will be my next team, I was improvising. Every weekend was a new adventure.”
Without being asked, Alonso shared that he had planned to leave F1 in the same decade he started.
“What I would say is that when I won the championship in 2006 and then I joined McLaren, I had a three-year contract – 2007, ’08, and ’09. I was 99 percent sure that 2009 would be my last Formula 1 season.
That was my plan. Very clear plan in my head. I won the championship in 2005, again in ’06, joined McLaren for three years, and that was my last contract in my head.”
When asked why he had this plan and what he would do if he retired before turning 30, Alonso said: “I don’t know! Maybe there was no reason for it but, when I signed that contract, a three-year contract, so, in my head at that time, it was like a long-term contract.”
“Okay, three years might seem long, but, you know, this is the last anyway, you know? I’ve already achieved my dream; I won the championship twice. This was beyond my wildest imagination, to be a Formula 1 champion. So what else can I do here?
“So I signed this contract with McLaren and hoped to win more championships and more races. But, after Formula 1, there is a different life outside, and it’s not just about racing. “I was thinking I would have a family and do normal things, have regular days.
“I don’t think that the 19-year-old Minardi 2001 Fernando Alonso would find anything strange about the 400 Grand Prix, because I wasn’t thinking too much about the future. But 2007 would definitely be a surprise.”
Alonso’s best years in F1 were in the early part of his career, as he couldn’t match his earlier title wins during his long time with Ferrari and McLaren in the 2010s. His move to Ferrari came at a time when Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel were rising, and what seemed like a promising move for more titles ended up being disappointing.
In 2024, Alonso’s enthusiasm for racing is still strong, but he said his love for the sport had to change over time. By the time he left F1 in 2018, that love had faded, and his future was uncertain.
“It did evolve. Yes, I learned things, I accepted things that I didn’t at some points in my career,” he said. “I have a sense of justice and a sense of fairness that you have to disconnect if you are in Formula 1.
“There is no fairness here. There is no justice sometimes, and you have to just deal with the unique things in this sport.
“There are a lot of politics, there are a lot of interests. There are some decisions that, maybe, are not so much on the sportive side. “You have to accept it if you want, if you would like to be part of the circus. You have to accept certain things.”
“If not, you find another category, which is exactly what I did in 2018 – I was not happy with myself, I was not enjoying Formula 1 at that moment, not only on track, but also off track, you know, the domination of Mercedes.
“It was just… I don’t know. I felt it was time.
“I still loved motorsport. I still loved driving cars. So let’s try the Indy 500, the Le Mans, all these kinds of things. And then I came back to F1, enjoying it more – not because F1 changed too much, but because I accepted things that Formula One has, and you take it or you leave it.”
Alonso, who already holds the record for being the most experienced Grand Prix driver ever, will reach a new milestone when he starts this Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix – it will be his 400th Grand Prix entry in F1.
No one else is even close to this number. Kimi Raikkonen, who started his F1 career at the same race as Alonso back in 2001, also took two years off from F1 after 2009, but ended his career after 2021 with 353 races.
When asked about his feelings as he reaches this record number, Alonso agreed with Clarkson’s comment that it’s an “insane” number to hit: “It is, it is.
I think 400 – even though I think now the calendar is a little bit longer and you accumulate 24 every year, not like in the past – but yeah, considering that I’ve been two years out in 2019 and 2020, reaching 400 now is a big number. It’s a way of showing my passion for the sport and for Formula 1.”
