Fernando Alonso says he’ll decide this summer whether he will try and return to Formula 1 for 2021.
The double world champion left his seat at McLaren at the end of 2018, but since then, has never ruled out making a comeback if he felt he could be successful.
With a seat at any of the top three teams looking highly unlikely, however, Alonso would likely have to take a risk at a midfield team stepping up, but he does feel next season could see just that.
“In my case, probably during the summer period, I’ll make a decision on 2021 if Formula 1 is still appealing to me,” Alonso said in an interview with NBC Sports.
“The 2021 rules are definitely a step forward and hopefully things can be more mixed and not only three teams capable of winning races. So all this factors into play. I may consider that possibility.”
Asked about the possibility of Alonso returning though, Kimi Raikkonen, who himself spent two years off the grid in 2010-11 before coming back in 2012, only sees finding a competitive seat as the Spaniard’s major hurdle.
“I don’t know, it’s not my decision and I don’t know if he wants to come back or not, we will have to ask him,” the Finn told Spain’s AS.
“But he is younger than me and keeps driving, it doesn’t matter if he does the Dakar or other things if you just keep driving.
“I did rallies for two years, you always learn things and it is not very difficult to return.
“But another thing is to find a good place to return, that is the most complicated part, even more complicated than driving.”
Also Read:
- McLaren seized Indy 500 chance with Alonso but rule out F1 return
- Alonso ready to return to F1 ‘stronger’ and to ‘win’ but is it just more rhetoric?
- Could Alonso replace Ricciardo at Renault for 2021? Brundle says so
As for this year, Alonso confirmed this week he’ll be returning to the Indianapolis 500 for a third attempt this May.
But as for how he sees the 2020 F1 season playing out, Fernando said: “It seems Mercedes is still quite competitive, they show enormous potential on the development side and on the progress from one year to next.
“But F1 is impossible to predict because many things happen in the season.
“At the starting point, (Mercedes) are the favorites. When you have Lewis [Hamilton] in the car and Mercedes with the potential they have, they have to be No. 1 probably.”