Fernando Alonso says he is regarding this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as his final Formula 1 outing, though quipped “the door is not closed” for a return.
Alonso announced in the summer that he would not race in Formula 1 in 2019, ostensibly bringing to an end his 17-year career in the championship.
Alonso has regularly outlined that he does not expect to appear again in the sport while McLaren has tweaked the livery of his MCL33 to mark his farewell.
When asked whether he would contemplate a return, Alonso replied: “Right now it’s difficult to think about coming back but the door is not closed.
“The first reason is I don’t know how I will feel next year.
“I’ve been doing this for my whole life. Maybe next year, by April or May, I am desperate, on the sofa, so you know, maybe I find a way to somehow come back.
“But it’s not the initial idea. It’s more about myself. If I come back it’s not for any particularly or the line or something that has to happen, it’s more how I feel in the middle of next year.”
Alonso will leave Formula 1 with 311 entries to his name – second only to Rubens Barrichello – to cap a career that has yielded two world titles and 32 wins across spells at Renault, McLaren and Ferrari.
Alonso pinpointed his drive from 11th to victory on home soil at Valencia in 2012 as his standout moment.
“A few of them I think they were probably a little bit higher than others in terms of performing and executing the race,” he said.
“If one, I would say Valencia 2012, a race that probably in a normal world we would never be able to win again.
“If we repeated it 100 times, 99 of them we would not have ended up first. It was a good execution of a strategy, good overtakings, a lot of risk, bit everything worked well.
“The car was not particularly fast that weekend, we were not even in Q3.
“I think I lapped [team-mate] Felipe [Massa] 10 laps to the end. It was not that we were in a dominant position that day but we still won it, so probably that race.”
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