Fernando Alonso has stressed that he has no intention of returning to Formula 1 full-time, insisting his outing in next week’s test is purely to help McLaren.
Alonso bowed out of Formula 1 at the end of 2018 but retained a connection with McLaren through an ambassadorial role and his impending tilt at this year’s Indianapolis 500.
McLaren confirmed during pre-season testing that Alonso would get behind the wheel of the MCL34 at some stage this year and on Thursday announced that his outing will come in Bahrain next week.
McLaren is fielding a second MCL34 in order to assist Pirelli with its tyre development and Alonso will drive that car, as opposed to the McLaren-run car, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at Sakhir.
“As I said last year, and in Barcelona as well, my idea is not to come back,” he said.
“When I said bye bye last year, it was because this chapter is already complete and I achieved in F1 a lot more than what I dreamt of.
“I had great opportunities outside F1 to do things that are unprecedented, so that is why I took the decision.”
Despite that assertion, Alonso nonetheless added: “Coming back is not in the plan but if something happened and a great opportunity arrived, I would consider. I don’t close doors 100 percent to anything in the future.”
Since departing Formula 1 full-time Alonso has continued preparations for the Indianapolis 500, raced in the World Endurance Championship, and also tested Toyota’s Hilux that it competes with at Dakar.
“Honestly I’m not missing [F1] too much at the moment as I’ve been very busy,” he said.
“Maybe if I was relaxing at home maybe it was different but I have been testing and preparing different things so there is not much time to miss anything.
“I think the team decided this was the best moment and not taking time from the race drivers to develop the car.
“On Pirelli it’s more about testing the tyres and maybe [I will] have a little bit of an idea of what the car is doing this year and being involved a little bit from last year in the development in the car is useful for the team so I hope it’s a productive test.”
