Alonso says F1 has become 'sad and predictable'

40

McLaren's Fernando Alonso has hinted he will decide about his future in Formula 1 during the summer break. But it already sounds like his love affair with Grand Prix racing might be coming to an end.

"The biggest thing here is how predictable everything is," he told journalists in Spain. "We can put in the paper now what would be the qualifying here on Saturday, what it would be in Monaco, what it would be in Silverstone..

"That's something you need to take into account for future decisions. This is sad in a way for Formula 1, the direction everything went."

The two-time world champion is currently combining a full season in F1 with a parallel campaign in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

He marked his début with the Toyota LMP1 team at the 6 Hours at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend with a victory.

By contrast, this weekend will the fifth anniversary of his last F1 win in 2013 with Ferrari.

"I'm attempting two world championships at the same time," he said ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. "It's quite demanding - especially the F1 calendar.

"I love to race, I love to win. I did much better races in the last five years than I did previously, even if I was not to win a race."

Despite some forward progress this season, McLaren still seems as far away as ever from getting back on the podium in F1 - let alone winning a race.

Alonso still right up there with Hamilton and Vettel - Vergne

"I'm happy with the progress we did here at McLaren and the direction things are going so I'm happy here," Alonso insisted. "I think it's difficult to say and be precise about how far behind we are."

However, he made it clear that he certainly hasn't given up.

"I kept the motivation because I'm competitive," he said. "It's difficult to see from the outside but you're extremely proud and motivated every time you do a one-off performance.

"We have been in power-sensitive circuits so far from the first four races," he pointed out. He felt that things might be different this weekend in Barcelona.

"I think here, and Monaco, maybe we'll see a different picture of different teams moving around. Hopefully McLaren is one of those that pick up a bit of pace."

"Normally Spain brings a lot of updates for all the teams," he added. "Some of them work better some of them need a little bit more time. Hopefully we can benefit a little bit from that as well.

"There's still a long way to go for us," he said. "But at the same time we were here last year with zero points, and now we are sixth and fourth in the world championship.

"In a way it's been a very good start, so let's keep that momentum."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.