Fernando Alonso Slams Max Verstappen’s Dreams of Retiring From F1 in His 40s – “That’s What I Was Thinking”

Fernando Alonso Slams Max Verstappen’s Dreams of Retiring From F1 in His 40s - “That’s What I Was Thinking”

Three-time World Champion Max Verstappen has expressed his intentions of retiring from the sport before he reaches his 40s on more than one occasion. Fernando Alonso, who is 42, however, thinks that Verstappen’s bold aim stems from his young age.

Verstappen doesn’t want to dedicate his entire life to the sport. Being an F1 driver takes away a lot of time from other things the 26-year-old wants to do. Not wanting to leave those things too late, Verstappen wants to retire from F1 while he is still young.

Verstappen also hates the commercial side of things. He feels that one day, they will outweigh his inherent love for F1.

Alonso, however, won’t be fooled by the Dutchman’s hopes. As quoted by The Times, he said,

“That’s what I was thinking when I was at Max’s age.  I thought that it was my last season in 2018 and I said ‘bye bye’ to F1, thinking that it was enough for my career. I found, even when I decided to stop, I couldn’t,”

Alonso claims that Verstappen is living in a ‘youthful folly’. The Spaniard too, found out that F1 is irresistible to a real racer after he called it quits following the culmination of the 2018 season.

This prompted him to make a comeback in 2021. Alonso signed for Alpine, and after two years with the Enstone-based outfit, he decided to jump ship and attach himself to the project at Aston Martin.

Max Verstappen has other priorities than Fernando Alonso

For Alonso, the ultimate aim upon returning to F1 was to grab his third World Title. It wasn’t just to compete at the pinnacle of motorsports for the sake of it. Verstappen, however, feels that he has already won everything he wanted to in the sport.

Now, he wants to try other things out. The Red Bull driver signaled a strong desire to dabble in the world of endurance racing and even rallying after hanging up his F1 helmet. He is also an avid sim racer, who has big plans to increase the sport’s popularity.

In 2023, Verstappen revealed that he plans to establish his racing team. He is looking at options and is committed to having his own GT3 team by 2025.

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
Aston Martin Fernando Alonso Max Verstappen Red Bull

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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