MADRID (AP) \u2014 FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said it wouldn\u2019t be \u201cacceptable\u201d for Fernando Alonso to leave Formula 1, and vowed to try to make the two-time world champion change his mind.<\/p>\n
Ben Sulayem\u2019s comments on Friday came a day after Alonso said he is considering racing in another series or taking a non-driving role next season. The 45-year-old Spaniard has been showing dissatisfaction with the performance of his team Aston Martin, and with the new F1 regulations that came into effect this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way we can allow Fernando, a great champion, to leave … because of the circumstances,\u201d Ben Sulayem said as he spoke at the New Economy Forum in Madrid. \u201cThat\u2019s not the way to leave the stage. He has to be successful, and then he leaves whenever he wants. (But) not because he was forced to leave because of the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Sulayem said he had already talked to Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll to try to help the team improve. Alonso has only three points after 13 races this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI share the issues, the car is not performing,\u201d Ben Sulayem said. \u201cI met with the owner, with Lawrence, and I am going to do the changes, and I will talk to him (Alonso) to make him \u2014 try to make him \u2014 change his mind. It\u2019s not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Sulayem said he had heard rumors about Alonso possibly wanting to leave, but the driver hadn\u2019t mentioned anything to him when they last spoke. Ben Sulayem said he had told Alonso earlier that \u201cit was not acceptable that you are coming to your own country\u201d with a car near the bottom of the grid.<\/p>\n
The Spanish GP is back in Madrid after more than four decades, and the new Madring will remain on the calendar until 2035. Spain has been hosting races in Barcelona in recent years \u2014 including this season.<\/p>\n
Ben Sulayem said it\u2019s feasible for the country to keep two races on the calendar every year, according to Spanish media.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full auto racing coverage here <\/p>\n
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said it wouldn\u2019t be \u201cacceptable\u201d for Fernando Alonso to leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-891788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}