It is latest today that Fernando Alonso has demanded he won’t take a year off Formula 1 one year from now, taking after cases from McLaren boss Ron Dennis that he could.
Alonso is contracted until the end of 2017; however McLaren battled in their first season with engine accomplice Honda. Also, on Saturday, McLaren director Ron Dennis said a “holiday” for the Spaniard had been a “thought”. Alonso has conceded the thought was talked about a few months back, yet told BBC Sport on Sunday: “I won’t do it.”
The two-time champion’s disclosure is the first occasion when he has completely said he would be on the lattice in 2016. Alonso, 34, said on Saturday just that it was his “aim to race and I think I will race”. Dennis additionally expressed on Sunday – in front of the season-finishing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – that there was undoubtedly Alonso would race for the team one year from now. The perplexity originated from Dennis’ reaction to an inquiry in a news meeting about vagueness over Alonso’s future emerging from occasions at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Amid the race at Suzuka toward the end of September, Alonso condemned the Honda engine over the team radio and said its execution was “exceptionally humiliating”. After the race, he told BBC Sport that he “didn’t have even inkling” whether he would race at McLaren one year from now.
McLaren, said: “No-one should have any doubt that I have three years with McLaren and my career in F1 will end with this team, hopefully winning everything.”
He replied: “He will definitely finish his career in McLaren. I have an open mind to anything. Some of the ideas have involved those sorts of considerations, sabbatical years, etc, but at this moment in time I would say we believe we know where we’ll be and we navigated a difficult weekend in respect of our drivers. I took quite a high level of flak out of that weekend; it was a challenge to navigate through it. We have a great number of driver options. We have two of the best drivers in the world in our cars. When we have to take the decision, we will take it together and at this moment in time our drivers of next year are Fernando and Jenson Button.”
Alonso said: “I don’t know what his intention is behind or what he means with some of the things. Of course, we all want to improve and put the car on winter testing and see how competitive we are and we are hoping for the best.”
