Abu Dhabi: McLaren boss Ron Dennis on Sunday did a dramatic U-turn on his assertion that Fernando Alonso might take a sabbatical next year.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Dennis confirmed Alonso and Jenson Button would be his two drivers in 2016 and blamed misreporting for Saturday’s news.
“Fernando’s in the car next year. He told everybody yesterday. Somebody asked me whether it was feasible he could have a sabbatical year and I said anything’s feasible; we talk about it being one of the options, but the same journalist forgets that I said at the end of it ‘but Fernando and Jenson are driving next year’.
“So off goes the story when in reality I made it explicitly clear yesterday, as I am now, that the two drivers for next year are Jenson and Fernando.”
Earlier, two-time world champion Alonso had stressed his desire to race next year, despite the fact that McLaren have struggled with their Honda engine this season.
Ahead of Sunday’s Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Dennis’ team sat ninth in the 10-strong constructors’ championship.
Alonso’s own form hasn’t helped, however, with the 34-year-old suffering seven race retirements this season and only two finishes inside the top 10.
This left him languishing in 17th in the 21-man drivers’ standings before Sunday’s race.
As a result, Dennis was reported as saying that the two-time world champion might sit out next season. “He will definitely finish his career in McLaren. I have an open mind to anything. Some of the ideas have involved those sorts of considerations — sabbatical years.”
But Alonso, whose contract expires at the end of 2017, said the sabbatical suggestion was an old idea and that he now intends to continue given what he felt were recent improvements in the car.
“My intention is to race and I think I will race,” said Alonso, who qualified in 17th place for yesterday’s season-ending race at Yas Marina Circuit. “I discussed many ideas but not at this part of the year.
“We feel so much more positive than before with the recent pace of the car. It [a sabbatical] is something we didn’t discuss for four or five months already.
“When Ron says something, you have the perfect opportunity to ask him to clarify his quotes. I don’t know his intention — we all want to improve, we want to put the car in winter testing and see if we can improve and hope for the best.”
But former F1 driver Mark Webber, a close friend of Alonso, has stoked the sabbatical rumours with his own take on the issue. “I think he’s a ticking bomb. I think, give him two or three days in the car and if the car is uncompetitive, I think he’ll have a year off.”
Alonso said that it would be “impossible to know how the season will go” after just one test, however, and added that he’d always be motivated to improve: “If we are second or ninth, it will not change my approach or my intention to keep winning that season.”
