Brown hopes Alonso will stay at McLaren for "a long time"

McLaren team boss Zak Brown admits that he hopes Fernando Alonso decides to stay at the team beyond 2018, but will not make a decision on its 2019 line-up until after the mid-season point. Alonso recently cast doubt over his F1 future, saying he feels "sad" over the direction the sport is taking.

The Spaniard re-joined McLaren in 2015 but endured three painful seasons with Honda, who was the Woking squad's engine supplier. This year, the team has switched to Renault power and Alonso has already enjoyed more improved results, finishing in the points at every race so far.

Alonso is also competing in the World Endurance Championship this year, and took his first victory in the series last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. With Brown happy with the line-up of Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, he aims to at least secure Alonso beyond this season.

"We will look at the driver line-up in the middle of the year," he said. "We'll see what Fernando wants to do. I think Formula 1 is his passion, but he's been doing it a long time so we have got to see what he wants to do. But hopefully he will be with McLaren for a long time."

And Brown thinks that Alonso's as happy as he's ever been with a team in F1:  "He loves the McLaren environment, I don't think he's ever been happier driving for a racing team.

"I think his heart is definitely still in Formula 1 but he wants to win. He's going to wait and see how these developments come along - we have more developments coming - so in the middle of the year we will sit down and make a decision. But I expect to see Fernando racing something and I hope it has a McLaren badge on it."

After five qualifying sessions in 2018, Vandoorne remains the only driver who has been out-qualified by his team on each occasion this year. However, Brown has praised the Belgian, claiming that being paired with Alonso will help him in the long term.

"Stoffel's coming along really well," said the American "Both Stoffel and Fernando are doing a great job. Stoffel is up against the best guy in the world, as I think we all know, or certainly one of the top three and he's done a great job. Last year was a tricky year for him as a rookie, which actually I think will make him a better driver long term dealing with that type of adversity."

Fergal Walsh