Fernando Alonso says speculation that he has issued McLaren with an ultimatum to choose between him and Honda for 2018 is “absolutely not true”.
Alonso has repeatedly reiterated that he will decide on his future in September or October, and reports surfaced in the German press that the Spaniard has given McLaren the choice of continuing with him or Honda for next year.
Honda has struggled for reliability and performance since reuniting with McLaren in 2015 – the partnership holds ninth in the standings – while Alonso is in the final season of a three-year deal.
When asked if such a situation was unfolding, Alonso replied: “Absolutely not true, I read this week, I have absolutely not decided.
“More than anything I’m not bigger than a team. We are 1000 people in McLaren-Honda working for the championship and we know that things are not going in the right direction.
“We are not competitive enough after three years, we all want to change that situation, I am one of the 1000 people there and probably the less important one.
“Because if [my future is] not here I will try to see somewhere else, and for McLaren it’s crucial to improve the situation
“It’s the second-best team in history of the sport, with numbers the team that won most times here in Monza, we are McLaren, we all want the same thing: to be competitive.”
Alonso also dismissed notions that he was not willing to complete the Belgian Grand Prix, in the wake of Honda stating that it detected no problem with his power unit, after the Spaniard retired his MCL32, having reported a power issue.
Alonso explained the situation, commenting: “I had a few issues with the power unit, in the three or four laps before the retirement.
“I had this a couple of times before when some sensors start failing, some things start to feels wrong, and then the engine went to blow up.
“This time, after having those first problems we retired the car, they checked the whole engine, it seems everything is fine on the look they did.
“I read [the reports he withdrew] and I’m surprised when I read that.
“It seems that the people forgot I’m racing here three years, fighting for Q1s, giving my maximum at the starts, pushing the car in Hungaroring in Q1 uphill [in 2015] just to get another run in Q2.
“I tried to race with a broken rib in Bahrain [in 2016]; when I read that I think people are not very concentrated on the real things happened in Spa.”
Alonso is set to sample Honda’s Spec 3.7 power unit during the opening practice at Monza, and will therefore take grid penalties, before reverting to his Spa engine for the second session, after the manufacturer opted not to use the Spec 4 power unit.
Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne will retain the Spec 3.5 power unit that he used across Saturday and Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps.
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