Alonso: I won't let others "dictate my destiny" in F1

The Spaniard has stressed that first, he will make a call on whether or not he wants to remain in F1 in 2025 and will then decide where he will drive, with staying at Aston Martin his priority.

Lewis Hamilton's departure for Ferrari has left a vacant seat at Mercedes for next season, while ongoing talk about Max Verstappen's possible departure from Red Bull could open up another tantalising opportunity for the 42-year-old.

However, Alonso remains adamant that he won't rely on other people making a decision for him and will do whatever suits him.

"I've been always that way," he said. "Sometimes it did help me, sometimes it did hurt me, to be the owner of my destiny.

"I chose when to go from a team, when to join a team, I chose when to stop F1. And I chose when to come back.

"And now I will choose what I do next year. I will not follow what others do, and they dictate my destiny. I will do it on my own. For good or for bad, this is the way I am."

Alonso said that his philosophy was not something that came with age or experience, recounting the decision to leave a winning Renault team for McLaren with a year still to run on his contract with the Enstone team.

"I was young, I won the first world championship [in 2005], and I signed with McLaren," he said. "And we announced it one year before moving there. And I was 24. So it didn't change with the age."

In Jeddah, Alonso suggested he would make a decision on his future in the coming weeks.

He says that there has been no progress since then as he is concentrating on improving this season's car.

"It didn't change much," he said. "And it will not change in the next few weeks or races. I don't want to wait maybe until summer, because I think that will be unfair for me, and for the team, if they have to find more options, and things like that.

"But I don't want to rush as well, and to make a decision while my head is not into next year.

"My head is so focused now on the things that I will love to test on the car after the learnings of the first few events. Everything is so exciting about the performance that if I need to think about next year it's like, 'ah, this is not the right time now to think.'"

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Alonso reiterated that staying with Aston Martin remains his priority, assuming that he decides to continue in F1 next season.

"As I said at the launch of the car, when I make that decision, the first office that I will go is to the Aston Martin office," he said.

"And that will be my priority, my loyalty to them. I'm thankful for the opportunity they gave me two years ago.

"And if we get to an agreement, then that will be the decision, if I keep racing and we get to an agreement.

"If I don't get to an agreement with Aston, then I will look elsewhere. But that will be a second opportunity."

He also recalled how Sebastian Vettel's sudden retirement announcement at the 2022 Hungarian GP left a seat vacant at the Silverstone team, and gave owner Lawrence Stroll the opportunity to convince him to join.

"I think I'm here because Sebastian retired that weekend of Budapest," he said. "If Sebastian got to an agreement with Aston and kept racing for few more years, I will not have this possibility.

"So after the announcement I spoke with Lawrence, I understood more about the project that obviously when you are not in the team, you only know from the outside some of the news.

"The factory, the wind tunnel, the future commitments. And it was very appealing, and it was very attractive. And at the same time in Alpine we had that scenario that didn't make any progress for many months. So it was very clear for me."