'It does change your thinking' - Alonso sets timeline for F1 future decision

Fernando Alonso says he expects to make a decision on his Formula 1 future after the August summer break when he will weigh up whether to extend his record-length career into a 24th season in 2027.

The two-time world champion, who turns 45 in July, is in the final year of his contract to race for Aston Martin, having joined the team from Alpine in 2023.

Despite Aston Martin and engine supplier Honda's dire start to F1's new era of rules this year, Alonso said recently "at the moment, I don't feel it's that time yet" in terms of bringing the curtain down on racing at motorsport's top level.

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Asked at the Miami Grand Prix about the timeline for deciding what he will do next year, Alonso said: "Sometime in the summer, I need to make a decision.

"At the moment I didn't sit with myself to think about that. I never thought about it in a deep way and I need to speak with my family as well. I need to speak with my people first and decide what to do next year.

"I'm very relaxed about it. If I continue racing, I think it will be a better season than this one with the project in year two.

"If I stop racing, I know that I will race in other series."

He added: "I'm open to everything. Until probably after the summer break I will not really sit down with the team and make the decision. We need to see also how the car improves and how we see things into next year.

"I am also linked with this team, with this project. I want to succeed here behind the wheel or not being the wheel. You will see me in the paddock even if I stop racing."

Despite the team's current difficulties, Alonso continues to prove Aston Martin's lead driver on track, outqualifying team-mate Lance Stroll for 40 consecutive GPs. He is optimistic that should he decide to race on, his bosses will be keen too.

"You cannot be 100 per cent sure about it but I'm performing I think well enough to show the team that I can give them the results if the car is competitive," he said,

"I'm helping the team as much as I can. I think it could be more up to me."

'I would like not to stop before he sits in my car' - will fatherhood impact Alonso's decision?

Alonso became a father in March when he and partner Melissa Jimenez welcomed their first child together, a boy.

The cancellation of April's grands prix in the Middle East meant that Alonso was able to spend additional time at home in the first weeks of his son's life.

Asked by Sky Sports in Miami whether becoming a father had changed his thinking on his racing future in any way, Alonso said: "I have some thoughts, I cannot lie. It does change the way you see life.

"I have to say that it is going in the other direction. I want to race so he sees me racing. But until he is aware of things, maybe it's a couple of years and I don't want to race four or five years again!

"I was thinking, if I race one or two more years, if he will have any memory or any understanding of what is going on at the paddock and things like that? I would like not to stop before he is in the paddock, or he sits in my car, and this kind of thing.

"They are moments you will remember all your life, so it does change [your thinking] to be a father."

'I don't want to leave the sport when I've been beaten by everyone'

Alonso said that while he would naturally prefer to leave the sport on a high note, he said it was more about important to him that he stepped away before he started to feel his competitiveness slide.

"Leaving the sport with a bad taste is not always the best thing but these things you cannot choose - when to stop racing," said Alonso, who became F1 world champion in 2005 and 2006.

"Only (Nico) Rosberg (who retired after winning the 2016 world title) did! Otherwise it's difficult to choose. But I'm very relaxed.

"I'm very happy with my career. I'm very happy with what I was able to live and experience and what the sport gave me. This is a gift.

"Since I came back in 2021, it has been a gift to keep racing and to feel competitive. I also want to leave the sport one day when I feel fast. I don't want to leave the sport when I've been beaten by everyone, I feel slow and I make mistakes.

"I know that I'm at my 100 per cent now and I want to leave also when I feel that way."

Alonso previously stepped away from F1 in the 2019 and 2020 seasons to compete in other series.

He became champion in the World Endurance Championship - during an extended 2018-19 campaign which featured two wins at the showpiece Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota - while he also returned for two more attempts at the Indianapolis 500 and made a debut in the Dakar Rally.

On what his definitive post-F1 career might entail, Alonso said: "As I said many times, Dakar will be a possibility.

"If one day I can win endurance racing, Formula 1 and rally cross country, that will be probably unprecedented and that's something that is very appealing.

"I drove the prototype, the [Aston Martin] Valkyrie, two weeks ago and that was a nice feeling as well. Maybe Le Mans one day again.

"I'm not too worried when I stop Formula 1. I will keep racing somehow and I will still link with the team in a different role for sure in the future.

"Either way, I'm relaxed and I will be active in a way when I stop Formula 1."

Formula 1 next heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend. Watch live on Sky Sports F1 on May 22-24. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime