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2017 cars will define Alonso's F1 future

Fernando Alonso says how happy he feels driving a 2017 car will define whether he remains in F1 or leaves the sport at the end of next season.

New regulations will see aggressive looking cars which are more challenging to drive introduced next season, with a lap time improvement coming from both aerodynamic changes and wider tyres. Alonso's contract at McLaren expires at the end of 2017 and he says he will turn his attention away from F1 if he doesn't enjoy driving the new generation of car.

"Nothing clear yet," Alonso told ESPN when asked about his future. "At the moment I want to keep driving, because it's my passion and it's probably the only thing that I'm sure that I know how do. There are other things, still to be discovered, that I am able to do in my life.

"But still driving will be the first priority. Formula One will be the priority, if next year the cars are enjoyable and I feel happy. If not, there will be other categories. I've said many times winning the 24 Hour Le Mans will be a nice target for me. And then we will see."

And Alonso says he will have no regrets if he leaves F1 without adding to the two world championships he won in 2005 and 2006, insisting he is happy with the choices he made in his career.

"The decisions you make in the moment you made them, is because you think that is the best. It's not worth you know looking back and changing your decision, because when I made the move from Renault to McLaren it's because I needed that change. I was two times world champion, but the motivation was done.

"Then when I came back to Renault it was my choice - I had the possibility to go to Red Bull. But Red Bull at that time was an energy drink, it was not a world championship team. No one has a crystal ball!

"I don't regret any decision, because at the time that I made the decisions, my heart told me to take the decisions and I'm happy with them you. I prefer to be a happy man than to have two more trophies in the home."

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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.