Fernando says no regrets from his career in F1 so far
Thursday 27 April 2017 18:51, UK
Fernando Alonso has insisted he is "super happy" with his F1 career to date, despite the ongoing frustration of McLaren-Honda's troubled form.
The two-time world champion has yet to finish a race in 2017 due to a succession of reliability problems with the MCL32 and at the end of next month has opted to compete in the Indianapolis 500 with McLaren instead of the Monaco GP.
Still regarded by many as the best all-round driver in F1, Alonso will reach the four-year anniversary of his last win at the next race in Spain, while the second of his world titles was achieved 11 years ago.
However, despite his current team's predicament, he has dismissed the notion his career to date should be viewed with any disappointment.
"I saw some covers of magazines today - 'wasted talent'," said Alonso, who only arrived in Sochi on Thursday morning after a delayed return from America where he had his IndyCar seat fitting
"I'm super happy with my career. I was always in a competitive car, thank god, and I had the opportunity to reach things [others haven't].
"There are many talented drivers here who have never been on the podium. We will see what the future brings but at the minute I'm quite happy with what I did and what I am today."
The Spaniard was asked again in Sochi about his reasons for quitting Ferrari with two years left on his contract at the end of 2014 in light of his old team's current position at the head of the world championship.
Pointing out he never had a contract with them for 2017, Alonso then joked: "Hopefully they don't ask if Alonso was right or not to leave Ferrari when I'm 75 years old!"
And despite the lack of results since his return to McLaren, Alonso reiterated that he personally got more out of 2015-16 than he would have done by staying at Maranello.
"We would like to be more competitive here, that's for sure," added Alonso.
"At least in the years that I had a [Ferrari] contract, 2015 and 2016, I still think I took a good decision to come in McLaren. I learnt many things. I worked with some of the best engineers I ever worked with.
"And there [at Ferrari] it arrived the time that it was too stressful not to keep winning, When you are in your first, second, third year it's okay, when you're in your seventh, eighth year it's very difficult. So the quality of life improved in the last two years despite the results.
"Now they are winning, like Mercedes is winning, but it doesn't take [away] what I did in the past. When I left Renault [people said] 'you should never have left Renault in 2006'. They never won anymore times."
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