Fernando Alonso says he wishes he had left Ferrari sooner and, contrary to much speculation, feels he made the right decision to join struggling McLaren’s “new project” with Honda.
The two-time world champion said that he felt “things were getting more and more sad” in his final months with the Italian team and revealed he should have left them two years earlier.
“The car was not competitive at all and things were getting more and more sad,” he told CNN.
“So, probably, one or two years less was the best thing, but you know we tried to do our best and we fought until the end of every single race.
“After five years in Ferrari and being second all the time, I think it was enough for me.”
Alonso joined Ferrari from Renault for the 2010 season, and in his five seasons with the team he won 11 races and was runner-up in the drivers’ championship in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Twice he was still a contender for the championship going into the final round of the season, but both times he missed out at the expense of Sebastian Vettel, who was then at Red Bull Racing but has now replaced Alonso at Ferrari, where he has won twice this season already.
Asked if he should have departed Maranello sooner instead of enduring the continuing struggles, the Spaniard said: “Probably, yes.
“Sometimes, with Ferrari, you win or you lose depending on what the mood of the team in general, of the group in general,” he said.
“It’s a very big team, with some good things, some bad things, and as I said it’s good to experience and to live once.
“I didn’t want to give up and I wanted always to keep believing that it was possible and to keep the dream alive.
“Last year, I realised that with the Mercedes domination it was not possible to win in the short term for Ferrari and a new project was the best idea.
“McLaren is a risky project because they were completely new, but we are one team — we win and we lose together.”
Despite a year of problems and penalties, Alonso has managed to score points twice for McLaren, with his best result of the season coming last month in Hungary as he finished in fifth place.
However, hopes of a repeat at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix have been dealt a blow with the news he and teammate Jenson Button will both receive grid penalties due to needing new parts on their Honda engines.
Honda have made several upgrades to their units, which have struggled for power this season.
These alterations mean that due to both cars have already gone through their allocation of engines earlier this season due to unreliability, the drivers will receive penalties.
Opening practice for today’s race begins at noon on Friday.
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