Red Bull's door closed for 2018: Alonso

Johannesburg [South Africa], May 30 (ANI): McLaren driver Fernando Alonso has hinted that he could move to different team next season, but added that it will surely not be Red Bull. Amid the speculations that McLaren and Honda are on the verge of a split, the Spaniard driver missed the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend to make his debut appearance at the Indy 500. With his McLaren contract expiring at the end of this year, Alonso revealed that the only door that is closed to him for 2018 is Red Bull. "We'll see. I would be lying if I told you now that I have a concrete plan. I could go to another team, I don't know whether it is Mercedes or another. If Renault starts to dominate, I don't know," Sport24 quoted Alonso as saying. "If in June or July a team calls I think we would have a chance but it's all to be talked about.I think perhaps Red Bull is the only one that has doors a little closed because it already has young drivers with long contracts," he added. The 35-year-old further said that his future could also depend on Formula One's new owners Liberty Media as they plan to drastically expand the calendar beyond a scheduled 21 races for next season. "I have to see what they plan to do. I read that they want to make a championship of 25 races. When I started in F1 there were 16, now there are 20. If they tell me there are 25 I will retire," said Alonso, who has won 32 of the 275 Grand Prix he started. Recently, Alonso has been named as `Rookie of the Year` for the 2017 edition of the Indy 500. Despite having been consigned to a 24th-place finish after an engine failure stopped him on lap 180 of 200, Alonso defeated the race's highest-finishing rookie Ed Jones to the honours.(ANI)