Formula One: Alonso confirms he will stay at McLaren

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier believes the team has been given a real boost with the news Jenson Button will stay for 2016.

Alonso added there have been plenty of other comments made by he and team-mate Jenson Button this season that have not been picked up on TV.

He said his widely broadcast radio messages, in which he criticised the performance of his car’s Honda engine during the Japanese Grand Prix, were insignificant and had not upset Honda.

Fernando Alonso has reaffirmed his intention to stay at McLaren for the duration of his contract, which runs until 2017.

At the Belgian Grand Prix this year at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, team McLaren incurred a record total of 105 place penalties after both drivers received new internal combustion engines.

The team say they are next looking forward to the US Grand Prix, which is scheduled for the weekend of the 23 of October in Austin, Texas. He also called the result “embarrassing”, and has been open with his displeasure at the team’s repeated issues.

“When you are in a auto, and in a race, and you try to give it all and you are fighting lap after lap and you keep losing positions easily on the straight, even before the braking-point, you get a few frustration out there on the radio”.

“The most important thing of the Suzuka weekend was on Wednesday when I visited the Sakura factory and I saw the engine programme for next year”. “We had very long meetings and we went through all the difficulties that we are facing right now and all the possible solutions that we want for next year”. We have a microphone in our helmet and it goes live on television.

“That was the most important part of the weekend and the messages were important”.

‘Imagine in basketball or football, or something like that, what we would find…’

Because he has used more than the permitted five engines so far this season, that is a 10-place grid penalty in itself.

Jenson Button is likely to take the upgraded engine at one of the next events, with it hoped that the power units will last until the end of the season.