- FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem personally met with Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll in Madrid, saying he intends to make changes to keep Alonso from retiring.
- Alonso, 45, has set himself a deadline of September to decide his 2027 future, and has already stepped away from Formula 1 once before, in 2018.
- Max Verstappen revealed he has discussed racing alongside Alonso at Le Mans, a sign that even rival drivers are thinking about what comes after his F1 career ends.
A Sport’s Governing Body Does Not Usually Beg a Driver to Stay
Fernando Alonso has not decided whether he wants to keep racing in Formula 1 past this year, and the people trying to change his mind now include the man who runs the entire sport’s governing body. That is not normal. Retirement decisions are supposed to be personal, made over dinner with family or in quiet conversations with a team boss, not litigated in public by the FIA president standing on a stage in Madrid.
“We absolutely cannot allow a great champion to leave just because of circumstances and performance,” Mohammed Ben Sulayem said at the New Economy Forum in Madrid. “Yesterday I met with the team owner and the driver himself because I intend to make some necessary changes to change his mind. I invited him to tell me what he wants us to do to improve these results.”
Read that quote again. The president of the FIA is not commenting on Alonso’s future. He is actively campaigning to alter it, and he is doing so by offering to change the sport itself if that is what it takes to keep one 45-year-old driver on the grid.
Why One Driver’s Decision Has Become Everyone’s Problem
Alonso again declined to give a straight answer about 2027 at the Madrid Grand Prix weekend, the same pattern he has followed for months. He set his own deadline back in the summer: a decision by September, giving Aston Martin, engine partner Honda, and the sport’s incoming 2026 regulations time to make their case to him before he chooses.
That deadline is now arriving, and the AMR26 has not given Alonso the platform he hoped for. He has said as much himself throughout the season, and the frustration is not hard to understand for a driver who has spent years watching younger rivals fight for championships he has not touched after his back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
Aston Martin trackside operations manager Mike Krack made the team’s position clear without hedging. “We want to continue with him and are looking for a solution. We’re not thinking about other names or Plan Bs,” Krack said. “If he were to leave us, it would be tragic.”
He Has Left Before, and Came Back
Part of why this decision draws so much attention is that Alonso has already proven retirement is not necessarily permanent for him. He walked away from Formula 1 at the end of 2018, worn down by years stuck in an uncompetitive McLaren. He spent time chasing other goals, including Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500, before returning to the grid with Alpine in 2021 and rebuilding a career that many assumed had already reached its final chapter.
That history cuts both ways. It means nobody around Alonso, from the FIA to his own team, treats “no” as final. It also means Alonso himself knows exactly what stepping away feels like, and exactly what it takes to come back if the itch does not go away. Reports suggest Lawrence Stroll is working toward offering him a one-year contract with an option for a second season, a structure that would let both sides avoid a longer commitment neither might be ready to make.
Verstappen’s Le Mans Idea Adds Another Layer
While Aston Martin and the FIA work to keep Alonso in Formula 1, Max Verstappen has been talking with him about a life beyond it. Verstappen revealed the two have discussed racing together at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an event Alonso already won twice, in 2018 and 2019, in his previous break from F1.
“We talked about it. He is still very fast and has experience, but we will only do it if we have a real chance of winning,” Verstappen said. The comment does not confirm anything about Alonso’s 2027 plans, but it says something about how the reigning world championship contender views a driver nearly two decades his senior: not as someone winding down, but as someone still worth building a winning program around.
That a driver of Verstappen’s stature is planning hypothetical future races with Alonso, at the same moment the FIA president is trying to keep him from retiring at all, captures just how unusual Alonso’s position has become at 45. Most drivers his age are commentators or team advisors. Alonso is fielding a recruitment pitch from the man in charge of the entire sport.
What Happens If He Says No
For all the public pressure, the decision remains Alonso’s alone. Aston Martin has been explicit that it has no contingency plan if he walks away, which either reflects total confidence that he will stay or a genuine unwillingness to plan for the alternative. Either way, it leaves the team with real exposure if September comes and goes without the answer everyone from Ben Sulayem to Krack to Verstappen is hoping to hear.
Alonso has given no indication he feels rushed by any of it. He has spent the season saying he still feels competitive, motivated, and happy behind the wheel, qualities he values, by his own account, more than outside pressure from any direction. Whatever he decides, he will have done it on a timeline of his own choosing, in a season where seemingly everyone except Alonso himself has already told him what they want the answer to be.
Two World Titles, and a Long Wait for a Third Act
Context helps explain why this particular retirement decision has drawn intervention from a governing body that normally stays out of individual career choices. Alonso won back-to-back championships with Renault in 2005 and 2006, becoming the sport’s youngest world champion at the time and ending Michael Schumacher’s run of dominance. He has not come close to a third title after that, even after spending years at Ferrari and McLaren in cars that were often competitive but never quite good enough.
That gap between talent and results is part of what makes Alonso a sympathetic figure across the paddock, including among rivals who grew up idolizing him. Lance Stroll, Alonso’s teammate at Aston Martin and the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, has spoken about racing alongside a driver he watched compete before he had a license of his own. George Russell and Lando Norris have both credited Alonso’s mentorship and on-track example as shaping their own approaches to racecraft.
None of that admiration guarantees Aston Martin can build him a car capable of ending the title drought before he decides to stop. But it explains why so many people with no formal stake in his contract, from the FIA president to a rival team’s lead driver, have all found a reason to weigh in this September on a decision that, on paper, belongs to nobody but Fernando Alonso.
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