Fernando Alonso believes that the hesitation of Formula 1 teams to swap out seasoned drivers for newcomers shouldn't be criticized, suggesting systemic issues instead.
At 42, Alonso, who is potentially moving from Aston Martin to Mercedes in 2025 to fill the vacancy left by Lewis Hamilton's departure to Ferrari, has hinted at possible retirement, though nothing is certain.
"He's bought a new boat," chuckled ex-F1 chief Eddie Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast. "That's often an indication to me.
"People have a habit of buying boats and retiring so let's see what happens."
Should Alonso remain, Aston Martin has expressed eagerness to extend his contract beyond merely another year.
Recently, ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher pointed to veterans like Alonso as obstacles to rookies entering the grid.
"I have nothing against Fernando," he stated, "but the objective of F1 is not to have an increasingly older grid."
David Dicker, a supporter of 22-year-old hopeful Liam Lawson, attributes the bottleneck to the teams themselves.
"How many guys on the F1 grid would be capable of winning the world championship if they were in the best car?" he queried with Formula Scout. "Five or six maybe?
"I don't understand why they don't turn them over a bit more, because in business and everything else you would. But it's almost like 'Jeez, this guy's going to be heartbroken if he's out of a seat.
"Man, you've got to perform," he emphasized.
Alonso, however, rebuffs the notion that the blame lies with the older drivers or the teams, instead criticizing the sport's restrictive testing policies.
"Some of the big teams can afford to implement a funding program with private tests in an old car for Formula 2 drivers," Alonso told Speed Week, "But even that is not thorough preparation or real testing, but that's just how things are going in this sport at the moment.
"We have so many race weekends that we compete in, which means the teams are already at capacity, both in terms of the budget cap and the workload of the employees who go to the 24 races.
"I think that's why it's almost impossible to set up a test team, as in the past, to be able to prepare the young drivers well," Alonso elaborated. "Even the winter tests are very short.
"If you put a rookie in the car, he has exactly one and a half days of testing before the season starts. It is quite possible that this is preventing one or two team bosses from using young drivers.
"There are some things that are not going well in F1 now and sometimes as drivers we raise our voices. I hope that they will also be heard."
