Fernando Alonso hints at his next Aston Martin job after F1 racing retirement

Fernando Alonso ended speculation over a Mercedes or Red Bull switch by signing a new Aston Martin contract this week which could keep him at Silverstone until the end of his F1 driving career

Fernando Alonso hinted at an Aston Martin role after the end of his Formula 1 driving career after signing fresh terms.

Alonso, 42, had been linked with a move to Mercedes, where there is definitely a vacancy, or to Red Bull in place of under-pressure Sergio Perez. But on Thursday it was announced that he has decided to remain with Aston Martin.

More than that, the Spaniard has signalled his intention to see out the remainder of his racing days with the Silverstone-based squad. His deal runs until the end of the 2026 season, when he will be 45 - and it may not be his last driving contract.

"To commit to a project, a one-year project, it didn't make sense for me," he said. "It's not that I had one-year proposal elsewhere or anything like that, it was just I was very clear to Aston in the first conversations that the appealing part of this project is everything that we are building.

"It was the new campus last year, it's going to be the wind tunnel this year, it's going be the new regulations in 2026, and Honda coming as a partner. I think that was for me a must, to enter the new regulations with a new project, with a new wind tunnel, and also with Honda as a partner... it was something for me that it was very, very important.

"We have incredible, talented people in the team now on the technical side [and] they will benefit from the new wind tunnel and the new facilities at Silverstone, so there were a lot of factors that made '26 very appealing with Aston, and that was a theme. But it's not only ‘26 - it's a lifetime project, in a way, for me."

"This is the longest contract I've ever signed in my career, so this is something that will keep me linked with Aston for many, many years to come. Let's see which role, let's see how many more years I will drive. But even after driving, I will use 25 plus years experience in F1 plus another 10 or 15 outside F1, so nearly 40 years of experience."

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Alonso has worked with Honda before, though it was not a happy union. The Japanese firm provided engines to McLaren between 2015 and 2017 while the Spaniard was a driver there, but there were significant reliability and performance concerns about those power units and Alonso infamously denounced them as "GP2 engines" during a race.

But Honda have since gone on to power Red Bull to several titles and Alonso, having spoken to Honda chiefs, is happy to work with them again. He added: "If I had to choose one, my feeling that I would choose our project and our engine and our power unit, because I think they are dominating the sport... and they will have all the tools available to succeed.

"Honda is definitely a manufacturer that has so much success in Formula 1, and not just Formula 1, in the world of motorsport. It is always a company that I respected. It didn't work for us at McLaren, in the years that they came back to the sport, but right after that they fixed all the problems and they are currently dominating the sport."