Fernando Alonso should have retired three years ago

Is Fernando Alonso about to leave Aston Martin for Alpine for the F1 2027 season?

Multiple sources have told PlanetF1.com that Flavio Briatore and incoming title sponsor Gucci are pushing hard to sign Alonso, on the brink of his 45th birthday, for next season. It would be a short-term move for a driver with no time left to waste…

Fernando Alonso cannot wait for Aston Martin to get it together

A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix

As omens go, it was not a particularly promising one for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin.

Moments before the AMR26 was finally unveiled back in February, a poignant piece of music – Final Ascent by Hans Zimmer – began to play.

It is one you might recognise from No Time To Die, the most recently released James Bond movie.

In the film, the track is heard when an ageing, cursed Bond realises that there is no escape from the remote island this time. It is too late.

So he accepts his fate, looks to the sky and – spoiler alert – is blown to smithereens as a shower of missiles rains down on him.

No, the hero does not always land on his feet. A happy ending is not always achievable.

It has since transpired that, like Bond, Alonso was already aware of what was coming his way when Aston Martin’s 2026 car launch reached its climax.

Adrian Newey revealed in March that the team first became aware of the true extent of Honda’s flawed preparations for 2026 in November last year.

That realisation extinguished Alonso’s last hope of the happy ending he had always dreamed of.

There would be no final flourish behind the wheel of the Newey-designed car he always craved.

No 33rd grand prix victory. No third world championship.

From that moment, in fact, the remainder of Alonso’s F1 career has been less about chasing a dream and more about managing an exit.

So it was no great surprise that he was linked to yet another return to Alpine over the Barcelona Grand Prix weekend.

Multiple sources have told PlanetF1.com that Flavio Briatore, Fernando’s long-serving manager, and incoming title sponsor Gucci are pushing hard to sign Alonso for 2027.

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It would make sense for all involved given that Enstone is – has always been – the place Alonso runs to when his options elsewhere are limited or unappealing.

With his 45th birthday next month, the Aston Martin-Honda partnership will almost certainly take more time to reach its potential than Alonso has left to give.

A quick hit in a Mercedes-powered Alpine, by contrast, would give him exactly what he needs right now with everything thrown at the short term.

When the subject of his F1 future came up last year, Alonso said something that appeared to be quite counterintuitive.

He remarked that he would probably retire in the event of a successful 2026, but would be more likely to continue if this season failed to meet expectations.

Not only did it reveal the extent of his determination to end his career on a positive note, it was perhaps also a tacit admission that, in hindsight, he missed the opportune moment to retire at the end of 2023.

After all those years in the wilderness, there was no better time for Alonso to walk away than at the conclusion of his first glorious, podium-littered year at Aston Martin.

Second only to Max Verstappen as the most impressive driver that season, there was nothing left for Fernando to prove.

But the natural instinct of an elite athlete is always to demand – to expect – more.

In a driver’s mind, the next year, the next car, the next rules cycle will always be even better than the current one.

Alonso had plenty of reasons to expect more at the end of 2023, with Honda already on board and Newey’s signing less than 12 months away.

Yet in his search for more, the happiest ending Fernando could have hoped for ended up passing him by.

Who would Fernando Alonso replace at Alpine for the F1 2027 season?

With Pierre Gasly under contract until the end of 2028, having signed a long-term extension to his deal last September, Franco Colapinto would almost certainly be the driver to make way at Alpine.

Following a tricky first season with the team last year, in which he was denied a pre-season to get up to speed with his new team, Colapinto has made impressive strides in F1 2026.

The Argentine has scored points in four of the seven races held to date, including a career-best sixth place finish in Canada.

Increasingly he looks like the driver Alpine thought it signed following Colapinto’s fine cameo for Williams in the second half of 2024.

Yet there is little doubt that the combination of Alonso and Gasly – the most underrated driver of the last couple of years, whose leadership has been instrumental to the team’s recent progress – would see Alpine’s driver lineup become one of the strongest on the grid.

Where would that leave Colapinto?

How about Williams, the team where he made such a good impression two years ago?

With Williams failing to meet its expectations in F1 2026, there is a distinct possibility that Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon could look elsewhere for next season.

PlanetF1.com revealed earlier this week that Sainz is eyeing up Audi – the team he so memorably turned down in 2024 – for 2027.

A reminder of what James Vowles, the Williams team principal, said of Colapinto shortly after his move to Alpine – initially as a reserve driver – at the start of 2024: “Ultimately, Franco is my driver that I want back in that car.

“After a period of time, he’ll return to Williams. That period of time is not a line set in stone where I can look you in the eye and say it, but I can say he’ll be back to Williams at some point.”

“He is with Alpine and he’s an Alpine driver for a number of years. Their choice, fundamentally, will arrange what they want to choose from that.

“After that point, I hope he comes back to Williams and we’ll see where we end up.”

Who would replace Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin?

It does not seem that long ago that Aston Martin was forced to deny rumours of a $300million move for Max Verstappen.

That was April 2025 and, clearly, the team would be shopping in a different market this time.

The departure of Alonso would hardly be an endorsement of the Aston Martin-Honda project, with the team’s poor start to F1’s new era unlikely to attract leading drivers in the short term despite the presence of the great Adrian Newey.

If Sainz decides he wants out of Williams, it is not difficult to imagine Aston Martin rivalling Audi for his signature.

Sainz’s reputation of leaving every team in a better state than he joined, stretching all the way back to his stint with McLaren in 2019/20, would doubtless make him attractive to a team in Aston Martin’s current position.

Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, will continue to be linked with an Aston Martin seat for as long as he remains attached to Honda.

Sergio Perez, too, is understood to have attracted interest from rival teams following his steady return to F1 with Cadillac.

Yet none of these names are of the calibre Aston Martin has become accustomed to attracting over recent years.

But maybe Lawrence Stroll will get lucky.

With doubts resurfacing over Verstappen’s future at Red Bull, maybe this will be the year Max – seventh in the standings at the time of writing, that escape clause waiting to be activated – cuts the cord and forces a move to Mercedes.

For all George Russell’s confidence that he will meet the performance targets in his own contract to trigger an automatic extension for 2027, if any clause relates to his performance against world championship leader Kimi Antonelli, he will find himself in big trouble.

Might it be that Russell – briefly linked with Aston Martin before signing his new Mercedes contract a year ago – ends up falling into Stroll’s lap?

He’s probably the closest thing to an elite driver Aston Martin could find if Alonso walks away.

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