Fernando Alonso paid by TWO teams for one season after launching Ferrari tirade

Photo: © IMAGO

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari

Fernando Alonso paid by TWO teams for one season after launching Ferrari tirade

Alonso's bluff was called by Ferrari but it came at a cost

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Saturday 29 August 2026 20:55

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One of the biggest stories of the 2010s was Fernando Alonso's messy exit from Ferrari and the circumstances surrounding it.

After five seasons and two close shots at winning the F1 title, Alonso left Ferrari with still two years to run on his Ferrari deal at the end of 2014, furious with the team's lack of competitiveness.

His final season with the team was one of Ferrari's worst. They went without a race win for the first time since 1993, with the two-time world champion having to settle for two podiums. To illustrate how bad the Ferrari F14 T was, team-mate and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen failed to record a single top three finish.

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Alonso's anger officially resulted in him leaving the team in a huff, with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel sensationally signed to replace him from Red Bull for 2015.

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The real story on Alonso's Ferrari exit

It has now though been revealed the extent of the details of Alonso's exit from Maranello, and how he was left completely blindsided by Ferrari's move for Vettel to the point that even Ferrari themselves were revealed to have broken a contract clause.

As 2014 rolled on with Mercedes winning just about everything, Alonso was so angry about Ferrari's decline that he requested to leave the team in the summer in an attempt to spark urgent action at Ferrari.

The Spaniard though was bluffing. There were no real options to leave Ferrari for. Vettel (at least it seemed) was locked in at Red Bull with Daniel Ricciardo, and Mercedes were not going to replace either of Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg with the Spaniard without any need, given their drivers' domination of the campaign.

At the time, no other team (with the exception of Williams) outside those three had even a hope of winning a race.

Alonso thought his ground was even stronger with the knowledge that Ferrari had no one else to replace him with. In terms of stature and speed, only Hamilton and Vettel were any sort of fitting replacements. As far as Alonso was concerned, he held all the cards in his bargaining with Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel replaced Fernando Alonso at Ferrari

Alonso stunned by Ferrari signing Vettel

But according to The Race on their podcast about the time period of Vettel joining Ferrari, Alonso was left with a nasty surprise late on in the season following a meeting with new Ferrari boss.

After the Singapore Grand Prix in late September, Marco Mattiacci held a meeting with Alonso and stunned the Spaniard by effectively handing him his severance from the team, effectively sacking him.

According to the podcast, this was the moment Alonso realised 'he had lost' in his bargaining, and became 'a bit shouty'.

Ferrari's own talk was backed up at the next race in Japan when Red Bull confirmed Vettel's exit from the team.

Alonso's final sting in the tail

But while Alonso had lost the war, he would win one more battle with Ferrari after his lawyers studied his contract. The Race noted that Alonso had a clause in his Ferrari contract that required the team to tell him if they were in negotiations with another driver.

As Vettel had signed a pre-contract agreement with Ferrari, this clause was reportedly clearly breached, resulting in Ferrari having to pay Alonso's remaining one year salary for 2015 without driving for them.

Although Alonso had a contract in 2016, he waived this final year's pay in exchange for him having a clean release to join McLaren.

Alonso, with the doomed McLaren Honda project, was effectively being paid by the Woking outfit AND Ferrari to race during the 2015 season.

That amounted to approximately £20million from Ferrari and £25million from McLaren. Even so, the Spaniard would probably have settled for a lot less than earning £45m in 2015 if it meant he had a car that could challenge for the world title instead of being one of the slowest.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

F1 Ferrari Fernando Alonso Sebastian Vettel