McLaren open to Alonso pursuing other F1 opportunities

McLaren would not stand in the way of Fernando Alonso securing a racing return to Formula 1 in 2020 despite his current contractual agreement with the team.

Two-time world champion Alonso stepped away from racing in F1 at the end of last year in order to pursue other racing interests, but retained links to McLaren through a two-year ambassadorial role.

Alonso tested the team's 2019 car, the MCL34, in Bahrain earlier this year and was initially set to play a part in the development of its 2020 car, only for McLaren to cut back his involvement and confirm last month he had no further F1 outings planned for the team.

Alonso currently has no firm racing programme in place after leaving Toyota's LMP1 operation in June at the end of the FIA World Endurance Championship season. While he is expected to enter the Dakar Rally with Toyota next year, a return to F1 has been mooted amid the 'silly season' driver speculation.

Speaking on Friday at Silverstone, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown confirmed that while Alonso remains part of the team's family, he would be free to pursue a return to F1 for 2020 should he desire.

"With Fernando, he remains an ambassador with McLaren. We’ve got a great relationship with him and we are speaking with him about some racing programmes in the future that are not Formula 1-related," Brown said.

"But we are happy for him if he wants to get back into Formula 1, because we don’t have a seat available to go race for another team, and we will very much support with that if that’s what he wants to do."

McLaren confirmed earlier this week it would be continuing with its existing line-up for Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in 2020, making it the first team to finalise its drivers for next year.