Alonso Open to Anything But Does Not Rule Out 2018 Ferrari Seat

Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso’s contract with McLaren Honda expires at the end of the current season. With no solution for the Woking squad’s performance dilemma, things are looking bleak. Alonso has issued an ultimatum to McLaren to improve their performance and convince him that they are capable of being championship contenders. If they fail to do so, there is every chance that he would leave them for better prospects.

When quizzed about his future during the Spanish GP press conference, he said “I like this Formula 1 and my intention and first priority next year is to race in Formula 1, But not only to race but also to win. I am happy with McLaren but we are not winning. If, before September or October, l see a possibility that we are in a position to win in 2018, l will be more than happy to stay with the team. If that is not the case, l will be more than happy to talk to anyone.”

In the Scuderia Ferrari camp, Kimi Raikkonen’s contract also expires at the end of the season. But Alonso has also been linked to a move to Renault as well. One option for McLaren would be to drop Honda as an engine supplier, but that seems a little too desperate. However, Alonso believes that the McLaren-Honda partnership needs time to mature.

“McLaren and Honda have a long-term partnership with a very strong commitment from both,” he said. “Now things are not going the way they thought at the beginning, but they are putting a lot of effort to improve the situation. So I think the McLaren-Honda name and partnership will be for the long term, so they need to find a way to extract performance and power from the engine. Hopefully we can see the progress in the very short term and this year fight for something big.”

When asked if he would be sad to leave the British marquee in 2018, he said

“Sure. With this project everyone is putting a lot of energy and commitment. The technical staff we have in the team now is at the top level and we have some of the best guys from all the teams. Unfortunately, we are underperforming on the power unit and we cannot do much about that. It’s the third year of the project and we didn’t see the progress we were hoping for. But the season is long, we are only in the fifth race, and we still have the potential to extract much more than what we are doing now. So I still expect a strong reaction from the team and in a couple of races time to be very competitive. If that happens we’ll see what we can do in the future.”