Mercedes have ruled out signing Fernando Alonso for the 2020 Formula 1 season as the replacement for Valtteri Bottas and the teammate to Lewis Hamilton.
After Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing ruled out signing two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso for the 2020 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport have joined them in doing so.
Alonso retired from Formula 1 at the end of the 2018 season, but he has kept his options open for the future and maintained that he would not rule out a return to the sport should an opportunity arise with a competitive team that would allow him to regularly compete for race wins and championships.
Of course, Red Bull Racing supposedly offered him a contract anyway, but there are still questions as to how that went down considering the representatives of the 38-year-old Spaniard informed the Milton Keynes-based team that he was “available” and it was reportedly Alonso who turned down their contract offer.
These questions are only magnified by the fact that Alonso and Red Bull Racing have previously disagreed on when offers were made between the two parties.
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But I digress.
Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff stated that Alonso is not in the picture as it pertains to the team’s driver lineup for the 2020 season — something that most fans already assumed to be the case anyway.
Five-time (and soon-to-be six-time) champion Lewis Hamilton signed a two-year contract extension with the team in July of 2018, but Valtteri Bottas only signed a one-year contract extension with the team at that time.
Bottas’s one-year contract extension contained an additional one-year option that the team did not pick up, but they could still offer him a new contract altogether for next year. The decision is down to the 29-year-old Finn or Mercedes reserve driver Esteban Ocon, and it is set to be made before the end of August.
Regardless of who the Silver Arrows select, that driver will be slated to become Hamilton’s teammate, and that is the main reason why Wolff has ruled out signing Alonso.
Here is what he had to say, according to PlanetF1.
"“We don’t want to repeat certain stories from when the two were together with McLaren.”"
Hamilton and Alonso spent just one season together at McLaren. This season was the 2007 season, Hamilton’s rookie season, but even in just one season, their dislike of one another was made clear.
Twelve years late, it’s hard to envision any of that boiling over since they appear to have mutual respect for one another now and really have appeared to share that respect for several years, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Will Mercedes re-sign Valtteri Bottas for the 2020 Formula 1 season, or will they name Esteban Ocon his replacement? Expect to know the answer to this question in the coming days as the 2019 summer break and the month of August near their respective ends.