With Mercedes confirmed and Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull set to follow, attention may soon switch back to Fernando Alonso and whether he stays at McLaren in 2019.
Earlier in the year, amid the problems and after his win at Le Mans, speculation grew stronger that the Spaniard could be ditching Formula 1 to follow on IndyCar and the Indy 500, the final leg of motorsport's 'triple crown'.
After McLaren's personnel shake-up prior to the British GP though, some believe plans for an IndyCar entry, which Alonso could have been part of, have been put on hold. Still the 36-year-old is not ready to make a decision just yet.
“I didn’t have time to think in June or July, to be honest,” said Alonso, who had five F1 races and Le Mans commitments in seven straight weeks.
“Probably in August, when I’m at the beach tanning, it will be time to think a little bit more.”
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As for teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, he is anticipating another year in orange despite another difficult season that has seen him fail to take the fight to his double world champion partner.
“I’m pretty sure,” the Belgian said ahead of the German Grand Prix weekend. “For sure it’s not been a year and a half I was hoping to have in Formula 1. Ultimately we’ve been struggling a lot in terms of the results.
“We’ve had both years a car that struggled to fight for points let’s say and it’s not always easy to show the right things in those circumstances. But that’s the situation we’re in.”
