Fernando Alonso maintains it is his own personal desire to move on from Formula 1 that was the reason for his decision to retire after 2018.
The Spaniard has been a critic of the current state of the sport, point to the “predictable” pecking order and inability for a smaller team to challenge at the front as two main problems.
On Thursday in Mexico, the man who’ll replace him at McLaren, Carlos Sainz, suggested F1 bosses should look at Alonso’s comments and learn from them.
Soon though, Fernando hit back.
“I’m not stopping because I don’t have a competitive car,” he said after previously claiming Red Bull had offered him a seat for next year. “I’ve been saying the same thing since August: I’m stopping because I did everything I wanted in F1.
“I arrived in F1, I won Grands Prix in F1, I won world championships in F1, I broke records in F1. I drove for McLaren, for Renault, for Ferrari — I am 37 years old, and I cannot do more in F1,” he insisted
“All the things that I dreamt of in F1 are done. There are new things in motorsport that are bigger than F1.
“From August, it’s been the same thing: ‘It’s a shame, and F1 should look that Fernando has to stop and so on… There’s the truth and there is your opinion, the general opinion. I stop because I want, not because I’ve been forced to stop.”
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Alonso also argued that such comments prove the small-minded nature of those within the sport as he instead looks to broaden his horizons.
“In F1, there is always the feeling that F1 is the biggest thing in the world,” he explained. “If someone leaves, people don’t understand that maybe he wants to go and they think that he has to go because there is not a competitive car to race with.
“I could have maybe a competitive car next year, or maybe McLaren next year is super-competitive, who knows? But I don’t want even to try.
“I want to stop next year because I think I can be a better driver, a more complete driver and better for my career outside of Formula 1 because this chapter is already done, with a lot of success in my opinion.
“Maybe there are other things outside F1 that I need to conquer, I didn’t succeed in other areas of motorsport, and I will try those.”
