Aston Martin “seemed to really want me” compared to Alpine

Fernando Alonso says he grabbed the opportunity to join Aston Martin as the team appeared more eager to sign him than Alpine.

The two-times world champion said Aston Martin called him soon after Sebastian Vettel confirmed he intended to retire from Formula 1.

“I had this possibility, I had the phone call from Aston Martin after Sebastian announced he was stopping at the end of the year, so at that point we sat down and we got to this agreement,” said Alonso ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin is scaling up its operation rapidly as it aims to become a championship-contending team within five years. Alonso said “the project is very attractive.”

“Obviously there is a lot of investment going on in the last few years,” he continued. “A lot of new people came to the team – very talented engineers, designers, new facilities at Silverstone. So I felt that it was a nice project for the future.

“They were extremely happy to join forces and to have this possibility to grow up together and we felt it was the right thing to do.”

He didn’t expect to get the opportunity to join Aston Martin. “Everything started when Sebastian announced the retirement,” Alonso explained. “I think Aston was waiting for that decision.

“They were happy with Sebastian to continue one more year. And then Seb decided to stop and they started calling some drivers that they were interested in. I was one of those and I was still available.”

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Once they began discussing terms, Alonso and Aston Martin reached a deal quickly. “We started talking on that weekend, briefly, about the conditions that I was expecting, about what they were expecting from me as well.

“We met quite quickly on our expectations and fulfilled all our wishes and on Monday morning we signed and we decided to announce quite quickly before any leak.”

Alonso said he would have been happy to stay at Alpine had the opportunity to join Aston Martin not appeared. “That was my intention and I was not hiding that as well,” he explained. “Every press conference that I did so far this year, I was quite clear that I was happy with the progress that we are making as a team.

“It has been an incredible journey for me to come back into the sport with Alpine, which I consider my team, my family. We won so many things together and that will be part of our history.”

However Alonso admitted he and Alpine were “not moving forward for a…