Ex-Ferrari boss Di Montezemolo confirms Alonso is leaving team at season end

Ferrari's former president Luca Di Montezemolo has confirmed that their racer Fernando Alonso is leaving the team at the end of the season.

Although Alonso's departure is an open secret in Formula One, the team has not yet announced it or their decision to replace him with Red Bull ace racer Sebastian Vettel.

Di Montezemolo said that Alonso is leaving for two reasons, one is that he wants another environment and second because he is an age when he cannot wait to win again, The BBC reported.

Alonso asked Di Montezemolo in the summer to be released from his contract, after losing faith that Ferrari could produce a winning car in the near future.

The Spaniard has been with Ferrari since 2010, and has finished runner-up in the world championship to Red Bull's Vettel three times in the last four years. He lost out in the final race in both 2010 and 2012.

Di Montezemolo said that Alonso was disappointed that he has not won over these last years and wanted new stimulus.

Alonso is deciding between joining McLaren, who have made him a huge offer to lead their team into their new engine partnership with Honda next season, or taking a year off in the hope of finding a seat at Mercedes in 2016.

The two-time world champion had said at the Russian Grand Prix at the weekend that his choice would be obvious when it was announced. He said that he did not think he would be using a Mercedes engine in 2015, and added that there was probably not a big risk of him not being in Formula One next year.

Di Montezemolo this week officially left his role as president of Ferrari, which he has held since 1991 and has been replaced by Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive officer of parent company Fiat, the report added.