Fernando Alonso is not retiring after the Barcelona Grand Prix, despite online speculation. His remark that this was “probably” his last F1 race at Barcelona referred to the circuit’s rotation off the calendar until at least 2028, not a farewell to the sport. With his Aston Martin contract ending this year, he says he’ll decide his future only after the summer break.
Fernando Alonso did not announce his retirement this week. Let's get that out of the way immediately, because half the internet is currently acting like the man's already cleaned out his locker at Aston Martin. And although the thought of it seems to be on his mind (specially with the Honda engine which vibrates so much that the Aston Martin drivers were scared of permanent nerve damage), the fact of the matter is that he hasn't confirmed retirement. What he actually did was hint that after decades of being the perpetual rookie of Formula 1, he’s finally starting to consider bowing out.
The confusion began when Alonso spoke to the media ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Addressing his home fans, the Aston Martin driver said: "It’s going to be a special weekend. This is probably my last Barcelona race in Formula 1, so I want to say thanks to everyone.”
But that one sentence in the middle launched a hundred "Alonso Retiring" alarms. When the truth is, there’s also a “probably sitting there”, and there’s more to Barcelona Grand Prix to indicate with finality that he is leaving.
This is where the actual news lives, and it's all a calendar detail, not a retirement story. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which has hosted the Spanish Grand Prix continuously since 1991, is being rotated out. Starting next year, the venue will share hosting duties with Spa-Francorchamps, with each circuit taking alternating years. Spa-Francorchamps gets all the odd years, and Barcelona-Catalunya gets the even ones. Meanwhile, Madrid has been installed as the new official home of the Spanish Grand Prix going forward, pushing Barcelona further down the order.
So Barcelona simply won't return until 2028 at the earliest. And when Alonso, now 44, says this is "probably" his last race there, he's making a fairly mundane logistical observation that he might be out by 2028 (his contract with Aston Martin ends this year, remember?)
The line was not a tearful farewell to the sport itself.
Here's the part of interest for anyone tracking the Alonso retirement question: he said he'll make a decision on continuing in F1 after the summer break, full stop. When pressed specifically on whether he'd still be racing by the time Barcelona returns in 2028, he was almost comically pragmatic about it. He pointed out that he doesn't even know what he's doing next year, given Barcelona's absence from the 2027 calendar, so projecting two years out is "nearly impossible."
His broader framing was that every race this season carries a small "last time" weight to it, given his contract with Aston Martin expires at the end of the year and the team's struggles (they only picked up their first point of the season at Monaco) have only fueled speculation about an early exit. Barcelona just happens to carry slightly more of that weight than usual, purely because of the scheduling gap and it being his home race.
Alonso is not retiring this weekend. He's racing his 23rd Grand Prix at a circuit that won't host F1 again for two years. He's aware of the symbolism, and he's leaning into it for his home fans. But the actual decision on his F1 future, retirement included, won't come until after the summer break, and even then, Fernando Alonso has come out of retirement before.
Just ask the 2021 F1 season.