But will that be enough?
Alonso has told EFE news agency a few days ago he is happy at McLaren, Just frustrated and he has given them till the summer to get the job done, but it seems McLaren are more focussed on next year
I’m happy, the only thing missing is to be competitive
With Honda and the engine we have we cannot get all the potential possible, and this is sometimes frustrating,…Because you try to give everything you have in a weekend and then something breaks, it’s a little tiring.
I am hopeful that things will improve, but from September or October I will be open to any kind of negotiation, whether with McLaren or any other team.
Alonso’s contract with McLaren expires at the end of 2017 and the Spaniard has said he will make a decision about his F1 future over the summer break.
Current CEO of McLaren Technology Group and former racer Zac Brown has also been quoted saying recently:
I think they’re all frustrated, as you can imagine, and eager to get back to our winning ways.
We’ve got the enthusiasm to be winning races and the championship, but I don’t think we’re there yet with our overall package, and therefore I’m just eager to see us keep moving up the grid and get ourselves into a position to start winning races in 2018.
2018 is not far away so we’re going to have to evaluate how we get back to the top positions.
I don’t know yet how we are going to do it, and it’s certainly very difficult to imagine that we are going to fight for the world championship next year.
But we can take a big step and we need to find a way to be in that position. We still have a little time before the summer break
The Spanish driver did not want to elaborate to EFE on his future, but stressed his priority is to remain in F1 action; however, he warned that he may look elsewhere if McLaren has not made progress soon. Stay in F1 Fonzy.
-SteveBarbyF1
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I dunno. I feel like I see Alonso and The Hulk next year at Renault.
I would agree but he has stated quite clearly he intends on only driving first a team who can put him in contention for the championship in 2018… that could be a stretch.
Then maybe he should consider a full time switch to Andretti Green 😉
Or chew his only leg off. Fun for a weekend. Not long term.
You would think Renault would certainly take him if he wanted to go there… But I can’t see it happening unless they make a huge investment to steal a lot of engineering talent from teams like Ferrari and Merc. As it stands it looks like Mclaren are still making a highly competitive chassis, and it would be more likely for Honda to bring their engine up to front running standard than it would be for Renault to suddenly improve their whole car to front running standard. Plus, with Mclaren Alonso get’s the bonus option to drive an Indy car, maybe even for a whole season if the Honda F1 engine still stinks.
Alonso should surely just anything he can to negotiate a Merc or Ferrari drive, with Mclaren/Indy as the fallback option if he fails. Mclaren should be happy to just hang around waiting for him, as their reserve driver is one of the best in the business anyway.
I cannot see him going back to Ferrari, nor to Merc. That leaves Renault. If Force India had proper management (not Mallya) and more money, they could be under consideration.