Alonso explains behind the scenes of his signing with Aston Martin

He is relaxed in front of the television cameras. He has a sparkling eye, even clever! Fernando Alonso talks about his attachment to the team Alpine that he continues to call " his family " ! He praises the quality of his relationship with Luca de Méo, a “Fantastic President” he says. He also talks about Laurent Red what he says " to estimate ", and Otmar Szafnauer who “does the job” even if he is new to the system. 

“I always said that management had changed for the better, he repeats. With the latter, the first discussions began in Australia in March, then nothing happened after that. I think they were too focused on Oscar. Piastres this way, Piastri that way! Piastri, Piastri, Piastri… In the end, it took longer than expected, and Sebastian made his decision. From then on everything changed. Since they wanted to put Oscar on the grid next year, I also thought that accepting the offer ofAston Martin was a “win-win” situation for everyone! »

Fernando Alonso has only nine races left with Alpine. © Paulo Maria / DPPI

For the moment, it is above all a “win” for him who seems to have obtained from the British team everything he wanted for the future. “I'm not going to go into too much detail, but it all started when Sebastian announced he was ending his career in F1 on Thursday in Hungary. I got a call from Aston Martin right away, and that same evening we sat down to talk. They asked me if I had a contract with Alpine for next year. I replied “not yet”, that it was still under discussion. They told me about their plans for the future, new facilities, etc. They also told me that age was not a problem, that only performance on Saturday and Sunday counts... Words that I really appreciated and that I had not heard over the last year and half past. In the end they asked me for my conditions, which they were able to satisfy. It was fixed in 10 minutes, In fact. »

Obviously, the current difficulties encountered by the men in green have not discouraged him, the important thing for him is tomorrow more than today. “This is also the first year of this new generation of cars and there is still a lot to learn, He explains. Their plans for next year and the future are very ambitious. I have total confidence but, for now, I want to concentrate on the nine remaining races. We've been pretty close to the podium on several occasions, and I'd like to have one last one with Alpine. We have achieved so many great things together that I would like us to end on a high point! » We also hope for their common history which is indeed better than this separation sounding the death knell of a relationship more than twenty years old and sanctioned by two world titles with Renault and in 2005 2006.

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