“Unique” Fernando Alonso “still motivated like a young driver” in F1

Flavio Briatore says he has no idea how long Fernando Alonso will continue to race in Formula 1 as he is “still motivated like a young driver”.

Briatore - who is currently serving in an advisory role at Alpine - has been Alonso’s personal manager throughout his F1 career, and was also his team boss at Renault when he won both of his world titles in 2005 and 2006.

The 43-year-old is the oldest driver on the current F1 grid and earlier this year penned a new deal to remain with Aston Martin through to the end of 2026.

Speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, Briatore was asked about Alonso’s future.

“I have managed Fernando Alonso now for 22 years. We have a 22-year marriage,” Briatore began.

“Fernando is still very difficult to understand, because Fernando is still motivated like a young driver.

“He’s super fit, maybe more fit now than the time he was driving for me [at Renault].

“He lives in Monaco, he’s doing the bicycle every day, doing 60, 70, 80km every day.

“He goes to the gym every day. Every time we go to dinner he is very, very careful, never cheating with his food.

“He’s unbelievable. I don’t know. If you ask me if Fernando wants to continue beyond our last contract… our last year will be 2026, for the moment.

“What he wants to do after, I don’t know [if] he wants to continue one more year.

“The performance is there, you see it’s there. It’s not a question that he’s lost concentration.

“During the race, he’s always there: if he’s 11th, he wants to be 10th; if he’s 10th he wants to be ninth.

“He wants the car to be competitive. He’s qualifying well, he’s racing well.

“I don’t know, honestly, if he wants to stop in 2026 or go one more year.

“I don’t know. It depends the feeling he has about racing, the timing, I don’t know if he will have a family at that time.

“But for sure he is somebody unique. I’ve never seen somebody like that, so determined every day.”

Alonso remains competitive in the latter stages of his F1 career, with the Spaniard scoring eight podiums for Aston last year and is currently ninth in the drivers’ standings with consistent top eight results.