I imagine RBR would probably only offer him a one year deal, if they even want him. Merc doesn't seem that attractive at the moment since they're still struggling to understand the current regs, and Ferrari and McLaren have their drivers locked in. So makes sense to stay with the 4th best team right now.

I guess Merc wants a seat warmer for Antonelli, rbr doesn't want a civil war, anyone else is locked in

The only attractive thing about Merc is that they did once nail a new engine regulation and subsequently dominated. I'm not sure Alonso even wants to take the gamble on them repeating that, and everything else about them currently doesn't inspire confidence. They've clearly struggled to understand the current regulations, and three years in a row with constant grave correlation errors is a huge red flag.

As for RBR, they probably aren't interested, honestly. They don't want someone challenging Max, they just want a stable number two. If anything, they'd also probably want someone younger than Checo to hopefully have a stable nr.2 for the rest of the duration of Max's contract.

Also, I'm not even sure Alonso would want to go there. I think he knows Max is better than him, and I don't think he would want to go there and be consistently beaten. He needs to luck into a car that is better than Max's, and of the options open Aston is really the best. They'll be a Honda works team for 2026 and Honda is the reigning constructors champions' engine provider. That's got to be the year he's essentially gambling on with this contract.

Well that was unexpected. Why sign so early when there are still top seats open?

Was it? This is what I was expecting all along... I'm certain he only raised the doubt about retirement to push AM to sign him up quickly

Fernando is awesome but he is not in a position to be top at Red Bull. Ferrari has no seats, I doubt Mercedes would not prefer a younger driver and he already tried every other team on the front of the grid.