No motivation charge 'absurd' - Alonso

Apr.20 (GMM) Fernando Alonso insists he is still fully motivated for motor racing.

The Spaniard said a career goal is to add wins at the iconic sports car race Le Mans, and also the Indianapolis 500, to his two world championships.

"Yes," he told the Spanish newspaper AS, "there are three competitions at the top of the legend of motor sport: Monaco, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 and I know it's difficult to win all three but it would be a great challenge."

But Alonso says he is not done with F1 quite yet, even though former driver Johnny Herbert recently identified an apparent lack of motivation in the 34-year-old.

"I don't know how on earth people can think I'm not motivated," said the 2005 and 2006 world champion.

"In 2012 I fought for the championship until the last moment. In 2013 I finished second, in 2014 I made triple the points of a driver like Kimi Raikkonen and in 2015 I was pushing the car in Hungary to reach the pitlane.

"Now I had a pneumothorax, two broken ribs and I was asking the FIA to let me drive the car. It's absurd (to say I'm not motivated). You can say anything about me: I'm slow, I'm old, I'm ugly, but not I'm unmotivated," added Alonso.

Told that Herbert's wife had been upset by their run-in in Bahrain, however, Alonso explained: "Well, my mother was worried for weeks about me.

"Worried about the crash in Australia, worried that I flew to Bahrain, worried that I wanted to race, and then this guy (Herbert) says that I want to retire," said Alonso.