Double-time F1 world champion, Fernando Alonso has expressed his inclination to extend his contract with Aston Martin, stating that he is “tempted” to do so.

The 41-year-old Spanish driver, who secured two championships nearly two decades ago, has already achieved podium finishes in four out of five races this year since his move from Alpine.

His ex-girlfriend recently disclosed that Alonso’s contract, initially believed to be multi-year, is fixed for the 2023 and 2024 F1 seasons.

“Things seem to be going better than we expected this year and maybe that means being tempted to extend the contract in the future,” Alonso told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

“But there is also the temptation to finish, and do it with a smile on my face. I don’t know, honestly.”

New reports this week also suggest that Aston Martin, currently powered by customer Mercedes engines, could be set to team up with Honda for 2026.

“It’s true that in 2026 there will be another change in regulations with the new engines,” Alonso said. “And that is another temptation.”

The German-language news agency SID also quoted Alonso this week as suggesting he wants to stay in Formula 1 “for a few more years”.

“I feel fresh, I feel fast, I feel motivated,” he said. “Whether it’s two, three, four or however many years, I don’t know yet.

“To be in F1, you give up family, life and friendships so it has to be worth it. Especially at the end of my career I want to fight for something important again.”

Team boss Mike Krack thinks Alonso may eventually even win his long-awaited third drivers’ title – at the wheel of a green Aston Martin.

“It’s all about motivation, and Fernando’s is unbroken,” he told Sport Bild.

“We would have to take another step because Red Bull is very, very strong. But if we give him a car for it, he can become world champion again.”

Toto Wolff says he will sit down with Lewis Hamilton “in a few weeks” to sign a new Mercedes contract for the seven time world champion.

The Brackley based team initially looked competitive in Miami, only to fall a second off the pace in the second Friday practice session.

“It was like a punch in the stomach,” said Hamilton, whose deal ends late this year. “It’s not easy to accept such a gap.

“The car is similar to last year here.”

A lot of hopes are now resting on a major car upgrade next time out at Imola, but boss Wolff says he is trying to “lower expectations”.

“There’s been so much talk about these upgrades that they seem to expect that we will suddenly be beating Red Bull by a lap,” he said.

Nonetheless, Wolff says the package will include new front suspension, a new floor and other aerodynamic features.

“Due to the budget constraints, it’s impossible to do a new chassis in the current season,” he said. “With free upgrades, we’d be changing twice as much.

“Right now we can’t say whether we’ll be better there (at Imola) or not.”

At the same time, Wolff doubts that Red Bull’s even more restricted wind tunnel time as a result of last year’s overspend saga will slow the dominant team down very much.

“They’ve had this penalty since October,” he said, “and it hasn’t really had an effect. That’s not the way to make us competitive anyway.”

Wolff told Kronen Zeitung newspaper that Red Bull is as dominant today as Mercedes was in 2016.

“In 2016 we won 19 races out of 21, mostly 1-2s,” he said. “It’s very similar at the moment.

“But Formula 1 is a meritocracy, and we have to acknowledge how good the Red Bull is in terms of driveability. They have a suspension that is really in another league.”

On the driver front, however, Wolff thinks stability will be the order of the day – even though a new deal with 38-year-old Hamilton is long delayed.

“Everyone is reporting on this topic live,” he told Sky Deutschland. “In a few weeks, we will meet up and sign the contract renewal.”

Formula One world championship is looking to expand the newly-tweaked ‘sprint shootout’ weekend format to as many as ten grands prix in 2024.

The format – now with a separate ‘shootout’ qualifying for a standalone sprint race on Saturday – debuted at Baku last weekend, and will be repeated five more times this season.

“The main idea is that there is a lot of action from Friday to Sunday,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in Miami.

“The first attempt with this new format turned out to be very encouraging, with positive reactions from partners, promoters and teams.”

He said some tweaks could be made to the revised format for 2024, and admitted that “traditional Formula 1 fans” are less enthusiastic than the newer ones.

Therefore, Domenicali insisted that Formula 1 will not use the sprint race format at each and every grand prix, but the plan is to expand it to “maybe a third of the calendar”.

“It’s an experimental phase,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said on Friday when asked about the sprint format. “Some things work, others maybe not.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner added: “I think we need to let it settle, do the six races this year and then reflect on it at the end of the year.”

The calendar usually consists of around 20 to 23 races and the season generally starts in March and ends in November or December.

Proposed Grand Prix Calendar for 2024 F1

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit
2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit
2024 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park
2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola
2024 Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome
2024 Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Catalunya
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit
2024 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
2024 British Grand Prix at Silverstone
2024 Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring
2024 Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring
2024 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort
2024 Italian Grand Prix at Monza
2024 Singapore Grand Prix at Singapore
2024 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka
2024 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas
2024 Mexican Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
2024 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos
2024 Qatar Grand Prix at Losail International Circuit
2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Street Circuit
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina