“The only world champion without a contract… is me”

hourToday marks the official start of the 2024 season for Fernando Alonso and the Aston Martin team as the appearance and new capabilities of the AMR-24, the second green car the Spaniard will race, are revealed. and that perhaps he will be the last, either because he will leave it, which seems not to be the case, or because he will move to another team in 2025..

This is the AMR24, Alonso’s new car.

Among other things, because after Lewis Hamilton left for Ferrarirealizes that he is the only track world champion without a contract since Max Verstappen will drive for Red Bull until 2028..

“First I will decide whether I want to continue to work longer with the full dedication that Formula 1 requires. I need to figure out what I want to do and I will drive Aston Martin, which is the priority.” “When the first races start and I analyze everything, I will make a decision there,”

recognized by a group of Spanish press a few hours before the start of the season.

“If we don’t agree and I want to continue, I have a privileged position, I’m attractive to other teams. There is only one world champion available and that is me and I am in a good position,” he adds. confirming what the MARCA agency reported on Sunday, which could appear on the market.

During interrogation by MARCA Regarding whether there have already been contacts with the groom, Fernando assured that “at the moment they have not asked me directly.” Although, of course, there is a general interest in knowing what my situation is and my ideas for the future, although yes, the one who has shown the most interest and asks me almost every week is Aston Martin”, admits the two-time Asturian champion, who did not want to say a word about Mercedes and that Physically, he has the rope for a while..

“I showed the best results in pre-season testing, comparing them with other years. so I guess at this part I could run until I’m 48 or 50… but we’ll see if the rest of me wants to keep going even next year. Right now I can say it’s a 50/50 chance because I don’t want to keep racing for fun and stuff like that, but only if I can give 200% to the team, so we’ll see,” he says.

The car is better

So, the point is to start the journey and determine the next step along the way, having previously analyzed the characteristics of the AMP-24, which was presented this Monday and for which you have high hopes: “I don’t think we won a second like we did last year. because we started from a pretty bad base, and this only happens once in a lifetime, you win tenths and I don’t know if that’s enough to close the distance with them,” admits “14,” who is about to turn 21 th season in the World Cup, the driver who has the most.

“But hey, it’s going to be a long season, not everything is going to be the first race, It’s an accumulation of improvements, and whoever can make one or two tenths of an improvement every two races will be able to take a giant step forward.and going from fighting for the podium to being eliminated from Q3 in Saturday’s qualifying. I would like to be in the points in all the races and hopefully get my first green win.“.

Aston Martin says the car is a powerful evolution of last season’s eight podium finishes. And Fernando, who has already tried it on the team simulator, confirms this: “I need to try again this week, and above all, do it on the track next week in Bahrain. but the car improves in all areas, faster at top speed and in fast corners, something we were missing in 2023.

And we hope that we managed to maintain the strengths that we had: road grip, tire care…” he lists.