Fernando Alonso has denied being in contact with McLaren supremo Ron Dennis.
Dennis is making no secret of his desire to sign a driver of the Spaniard or Sebastian Vettel’s calibre to spearhead the works Honda project from 2015. The Telegraph newspaper even said Dennis, despite his spectacular falling out with Alonso in 2007, “has spoken” with the highly rated driver recently amid rumours of an audacious $32 million per-year offer to woo him from Ferrari. But on Tuesday, Alonso played down the McLaren link by insisting it is “not my intention at the moment to move”.
At the same time, Spanish reports quoted Alonso as denying he has been in contact with Dennis. “No, he (Dennis) has not called me, it’s 100 per cent not true,” newspapers quoted Alonso as saying. But he did admit that his 2014 hopes are now gone and he must look to the future for better times. “Obviously this year, with seven races left, little will change — the hope is for next year and the future. Hopefully we can close the gap to Mercedes, who have a big advantage. “It is true that in these years at Ferrari I did not win, but two times it went to the last race and I have won great races. “I think they have been very good years of which I have fond memories, but in the future I definitely want to win,” Alonso added.
He said: “At no time have I regretted joining Ferrari, because at the end of the day, it is the most important team. “The Los Angeles Lakers or Real Madrid also do not win always, but to play there is important.” Finally, Alonso played down speculation Ferrari is poised to announce at Monza this weekend that former technical director Ross Brawn is rejoining the team. “I don’t think there will be any announcement, or anything to announce,” he said. “We must have confidence in (Marco) Mattiacci that he knows what decisions to make. The changes that are made are 100 per cent intended to improve the team.”
