Fernando Alonso retirement date unveiled as Aston Martin star’s next steps become clear | F1 | Sport

Fernando Alonso is set to retire from Formula One when his contract expires at the end of the 2026 season, according to his manager, Flavio Briatore. The two-time world champion will be 45 years old when that time rolls around.

The Spaniard put pen to paper on a multi-year contract earlier this year that will keep him with Aston Martin until at least the end of the 2026 campaign. This deal was a big commitment from Alonso, who had significant interest from Mercedes but chose to believe in Lawrence Stroll’s project.

While Alonso’s commitment is there, he can’t outrun age. The Oviedo-born racer is already the oldest of F1’s modern era at 43, and while he still has the pace to compete with the best, reaction times will naturally begin to drop off over the coming years.

Discussing his client’s future on the Formula For Success podcast, Briatore explained: “I don’t know. I believe [at Spa], for example, he was very smart. He did one pit stop and this was the way to go, because of his experience.

“If you ask me if Fernando wants to continue after we finish in the contract, our last year will be 2026 for the moment. What he wants to do after, I don’t know. Does he want to continue for one more year? The performance is there. You see the performance of Fernando, it’s there.

“It’s not a question of him losing concentration, during the race he’s always there. If he’s 11th, he wants to be 10th. If he’s 10th, he wants to be ninth. He wants the car to be competitive. He’s qualifying well, he’s racing well. I don’t know, honestly, if he wants to stop with 2026 as his last year or if he wants to go ahead.

“Honestly, I don’t know. It depends on the feeling he has about racing and the timing, I don’t know if he’ll have a family at the time and whatever. But for sure, he is somebody unique. I’ve never seen somebody like that, so determined every day, every day, every day. Never give up. Unbelievable.”

While Alonso remains committed to the Aston Martin project, the 43-year-old is only likely to continue in F1 with the team beyond 2026 if they are in genuine contention for World Championship titles.

As things stand, Aston Martin find themselves in a midfield no man’s land with a considerable performance gap to bridge to the top four teams. However, the reported arrival of Adrain Newey should help the Silverstone-based team on their way to the top end of the grid.