Alonso: I'm the F1 decision maker
Fernando Alonso says he has engineered himself in a position to decide his own future and believes Sebastian Vettel's departure from Red Bull is a consequence of his work.
Vettel announced he would be leaving Red Bull at the end of the season on Saturday morning, with Christian Horner confirming it was to join Ferrari. With Alonso set to leave the team it was put to him that Vettel's arrival would mean he would be forced to leave, Alonso said he is not being forced in to anything and is actually the man pulling the strings.
"Let's say that I have a very unique position," Alonso said. "Thanks to so many years and so much respected work that I did on the track, I decide where to go, what I do and when I do it. Probably some of the things that are happening are a consequence of my thinking.
"I have my mind set. I have a plan very clear. For the last two or three months I know what I want to do, everything is moving in the right direction but at the moment it's still not 100% complete. But everything's moving in the right direction. As I said, I'm the decision maker and whatever I do will have some consequences but I have the privileged position that I'm lucky right now.
"Whatever I want to do I will do in the moment that I want to do it, and I will race more or less in whatever place I want. After that the others will move their position probably. When I finally make my decision we'll see what it is."
And having said he has spoken to a few other teams, Alonso cryptically said it should be clear to observers what he is doing but that nobody has noticed yet.
"[Teams] are curious because there are so many rumours and they call or they get in touch just to know more about your position or your possibilities for next year. As I said, I have the opportunity to do whatever I want and I will do what I think is the best thing for me and my career right now.
"It's a combination of hunger for success, I want to win, I want to become champion, want to be happy, want to have a good life... there are many things that when I put them together some months ago showed me a direction to go in. I've been following that direction with some movements, everything has been going to plan and hopefully I can tell you soon.
"The thing that you need to understand is that from the outside you see one thing but from the inside it's very different. For the last two or three months you should understand already in which direction I'm moving but you didn't get it. When I tell you you will understand: 'Right, we should have known it'."
