Fernando Alonso says it's "almost not worth going" to the Miami Grand Prix next weekend after the Aston Martin driver was hit with a double penalty in China.
42-year-old Alonso remains as determined as ever to be successful in Formula 1, so was left raging when he was forced to retire from Saturday's Sprint race. With three laps to go, the Spaniard was on course to take P3 behind eventual winner Max Verstappen and runner-up Lewis Hamilton.
But as he battled with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, the pair made contact which allowed Red Bull's Sergio Perez to burst through and subsequently take the final podium spot. Sainz finished down in fifth but it was much more for Alonso, who was forced into the pits.
Things went from bad to worse when the stewards in Shanghai decided that Alonso was responsible for the all-Spanish collision, citing the 'guidelines on driving standards' instead of going into detail. The F1 icon was therefore given a 10-second time penalty - which was made redundant because of his retirement - as well as three penalty points on his license.
But Alonso couldn't wrap his head around the decision and fumed to DAZN: "These sanctions are not understood and I do not share [them]. Especially in the case of license points. Such an incredible sanction is once again unprecedented."
The veteran then cast doubt over his appearance in Miami, another Sprint and Grand Prix double-header. "It makes you think if in the next sprint race you even want to go out for a run, because due to the points that are given and that we are not going to have the tyres we use [on Sunday], it is almost not worth going out," Alonso claimed.
He'll now have to drive carefully for the remainder of the season, having already picked up six penalty points over the last month. Accumulating six more would result in a one-race ban, an issue which Perez and Williams driver Logan Sargeant are having to contend with, too, as they both sit four points below the 12-point threshold.
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Alonso recently committed his future to Aston Martin by signing a new multi-year contract which will see him race for the team until at least the end of 2026 when he'll be 45. That's still 10 years behind the late Louis Chiron, who died in 1979 and holds the record for being the oldest F1 driver to start a race at the age of 55.
"It's probably my last contract," Alonso explained. "So I wanted to make sure that it was the right decision first of all to keep racing in Formula 1, and to have the strength and the motivation to keep racing for a few more years from my side."
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