Fernando Alonso set to earn $46m per F1 season amid reports he will sign with McLaren this week
FERNANDO Alonso’s contract with
McLaren-Honda will reportedly be the ‘biggest in F1 history’ as the
sport’s summer-turned-winter transfer saga finally approaches its
concluding act.Confirmation that Alonso will return to McLaren — for whom he drove
in a solitary, tempestuous season in 2007 — is expected before the
season finale in Abu Dhabi in two weeks’ time.
According to
Spanish newspaper AS, the deal will be ‘the largest in the history of
Formula 1 and presented as a multi-year agreement’.Alonso is believed to have sought a one-year deal that would have enabled him to join Mercedes in the event of a 2016 vacancy arising at F1’s latest behemoth outfit. Instead, it’s understood that the price to be paid for an estimated salary of A$46m will be a binding two-year contract with an option for a third season.
In contrast, Nico Rosberg will earn ‘just’ A$26.3m per year in the new deal he signed with Mercedes in July, while teammate Lewis Hamilton is reportedly trying to upp his retainer to A$42.8m per year, an increase on the record-setting contract that lured him away from McLaren at the end of 2012.
It’s a tough deal but someone has got to sign it.
‘Alonso and McLaren have agreed for the Spaniard to be the star of the British team’s new project with a Honda engine. Alonso will have a considerably higher salary as both McLaren and Honda make a big effort to win again,’ reported AS.
Not that the man himself is being anything other than guarded publicly about his future, joking that a decision may not be announced until Melbourne in mid-March.
“Until Australia 2015 there is still a lot of months, but I’ll do something by then,” a smiling Alonso told Sky F1.
Asked if confirmation of his intentions would be made before Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard replied: “I don’t think so, we are still in the middle of the championship with so many important things to do in terms of points so that is the first priority.”
-Skysports
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