As the F1 paddock packed down at the Hungaroring on Sunday night, all eyes at Alpine were on a bit of holiday over the summer break and what were anticipated to be some brief talks to secure a new contract with Alonso.
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer seemed relaxed as he concurred with Alonso’s remark from earlier in the weekend that it would probably take just 10 minutes to sort things out.
“Very straightforward,” he suggested about how he viewed negotiations playing out.
Szafnauer insisted that the big-ticket issues at the heart of a contract (including the length of the deal) were all sorted; and it was only a question of detail. But there was an intriguing pause when he was asked about whether or not money was one of the chief areas that the two parties remained wide apart on.
He responded: “Not just Fernando. Every driver I’ve ever negotiated with, it’s been a question of money. And other things too.
“But yeah, for whatever reason, they want the most money and we want to pay the least. And then we end up in some kind of unhappy place for everyone, or a happy place that everyone’s willing to sign.”
Unbeknown to Szafnauer though, the wheels were already well in motion elsewhere. In fact, Alonso wouldn’t be continuing any negotiations with Alpine as he was already set on the move to Aston Martin.
After a weekend of intense effort from both Alonso and Aston Martin to keep the deal secret, it was finally announced to the wider team and the public on Monday morning.
When Vettel revealed his intention to retire, Aston moved quickly to secure the best possible replacement
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Behind the scenes, it is understood that Aston Martin and its owner Lawrence Stroll had been hard at work for several days pulling together a package that was good enough to convince Alonso to commit already, without needing to drag things on to the summer.
It was a dramatic change of plan for the team. For many weeks, Aston Martin’s focus had been on continuing with Sebastian Vettel, but it knew that the German was evaluating whether or not he wanted to continue in F1.
Aston Martin stayed loyal to Vettel for as long as possible but, when the four-time world champion finally informed the team hierarchy on the Wednesday before Hungary that he wanted to retire, it knew it could not sit back and risk ending up with a second-rate choice because other better options were snapped up elsewhere.
That is why, rather than keep Vettel’s…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – Formula 1 – Stories…