Alonso teases McLaren over new contract
FERNANDO Alonso has warned McLaren he will spend the next six months assessing the team’s fortunes before committing his future to them.
Although the double world champion was cautiously optimistic at the launch of the Woking-based team’s new car yesterday, he was playful about what awaits him beyond his extraordinary contract that has only a year to run.
Sportsmail can reveal that Alonso’s current deal is one of the cushiest ever offered to a Formula One driver. Despite earning $40million (£32m) a year, he is not required to do much, or any, simulator work and has a significantly lighter PR schedule than his former team- mate Jenson Button and his new partner Stoffel Vandoorne.
Alonso, who has always taken a wilful approach to his employment status, said: ‘For the future we will see. There is no point making plans for my future before August/September. We will see which teams are competitive with the new rules and then decide what to do.’
One option would be Mercedes after he revealed that he was approached by the world champions at the end of last year about the seat vacated by retiring title-holder Nico Rosberg.
Given Alonso’s existing contract, moving then was a virtual non-starter, especially so with Mercedes’s reservations over his involvement in the Spygate saga of 2007, when McLaren-Mercedes, as they were then, were fined $100m (now worth £80m) for being in possession of Ferrari technical secrets.
Mercedes, however, have left themselves freedom for 2018: they have signed Valtteri Bottas on a one-year deal with an option on a second year. There is also the question of how long Lewis Hamilton will want to stay, and indeed if Mercedes would want to keep their high-maintenance star if Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel or Alonso made themselves available. Both will be free agents at the end of the season.
While Vettel is the favourite to fill any vacancy, Alonso could still look outside McLaren if their new car does not show significant gains on a barren run stretching back to their last win in 2012.
‘Mercedes, after the surprise of Rosberg, had to do a little check of everyone, which is understandable, and they spoke with my people,’ said Alonso. ‘I respect Nico’s decision to retire, but I am more of a racer. I cannot stop. When I am 80 years old, I will be at the kart track trying to push the kids out of the way.’
Former boss Ron Dennis, who negotiated Alonso’s one- sided deal and remains a shareholder, was a notable absentee at the launch. Word went out among the staff that he was in the building 30 minutes before the ceremonies began. It was a false alarm. He was not there when the car was unveiled.
But his ghost remained, if only in the lengths the new broom went to to eradicate his legacy. McLaren’s old numbering system for the their cars traditionally included the designation ‘MP4’ — derived from the operation Dennis ran, Marlboro Project Four, that took over McLaren in the early 1980s — but that terminology was done away with. The new machine is called MCL32. McLaren Orange, which Dennis hated, replaces the grey livery he loved.
In attendance were representatives of the co- owners who ousted him, the Bahraini royals and Sultan Ojjeh, son of friendturned-enemy Mansour Ojjeh.
‘The McLaren Technical Centre is like Star Wars,’ said team boss Zak Brown. ‘We’ve made it a little bit too Darth Vader over the years and we’ll be a bit more Luke Skywalker next.’