McLaren does expect Fernando Alonso to remain with the team in 2018 should they switch to Renault engines for next season, according to Executive Director Zak Brown.
Bosses from both the Woking-based outfit and the French manufacturer were seen leaving talks during the weekend at Monza, along with Formula 1’s Motorsport Managing Director Ross Brawn.
Signals on Sunday suggest an announcement is likely this week and a switch is becoming widely expected with Red Bull accepting Honda engines for junior team Toro Rosso.
Should that be the case, Brown anticipates the former association the double world champion, who won his titles with Renault, would see the chance for greater competitiveness at a team he enjoyed being with.
“Very likely, very likely,” he told Sky Sports weighing up the possibility. “Fernando loves the team, he’s as passionate as ever to drive. There have been some reports about [going to] IndyCar and things of that nature – he wants to be in Formula 1.”
After the Belgian Grand Prix, there were reports Alonso had told McLaren either to ditch the struggling Honda project or he would leave. The 36-year-old would strongly deny that prior the weekend at Monza and Brown doesn’t see why he can’t stay even if the decision is to remain with the Japanese manufacturer.
“He just wants us to be in a competitive situation, and I wouldn’t rule him out if things stay status quo,” he claimed. “With the stuff that we are seeing, that we’re going to review further this week, I wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion if we continue with Honda that he doesn’t continue with us.
“We need to get more competitive. This weekend showed we’re just really not making any significant progress. How long can you wait before you have upset drivers, upset partners, upset fans?” he added.
“Everyone is hanging in there with us but it can’t go on forever.”
Other options have emerged with IndyCar and the Williams option still hasn’t ended, indeed, Alonso would refer to the Grove team when commenting on his future.
“Many news is coming in the next weeks and hopefully all of them will be useful to me to make a decision,” he said. “I’ll keep looking at what options are there for next year, I need to study all of them and make a decision.
“We know what that [Renault] engine could do – Red Bull did five, six consecutive podiums, and we know what Mercedes could do as well with Force India this year, Williams on the first row of the grid [at Monza].
“So we know what are the options, we need to make a decision. We need to concentrate more on next year, not this year’s results. It’s an important week, for McLaren to make some decisions, and hopefully, we’ll all know something before Singapore so we can comment on it there.”
