McLaren confident of Alonso's switch

[davewilson]

By AFP
McLaren insisted on Monday that world champion Fernando Alonso will remain committed to the contract that he signed with the team for 2007.

The Spaniard shocked Formula One at the end of last year after revealing that he would leave current employers Renault to join rivals McLaren. But paddock rumours over the course of the French Grand Prix at the weekend, where the champion finished second behind Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, indicated that Alonso could possibly look to renege on that deal.

It was thought that Renault team chief Flavio Briatore and Alonso were looking to buy the driver out of the contract signed with McLaren after a dip in form by the struggling team. But McLaren F1 chief executive Martin Whitmarsh is adamant that the Spanish world champion will join the team next year, and denied that Briatore was looking to keep a hold of the driver.

"I don’t think we do a shabby job with contracts generally," he told motorsport website autosport.com. "I think we have got a reasonable contract and the rumour that I heard was that an Italian gentleman (Briatore) was trying to get him to consider a breach of that.

"Firstly I don’t think he wants to, and, two, I think our contracts are usually pretty solid."

Briatore himself hit back at the rumours when asked if there were any plans to attempt to keep Alonso at Renault beyond this year.

"I don’t know where this rumour is coming from," he said. "This is a kind of Halloween joke, you know. I don’t push anybody to sign and I never push anybody to break a contract."

Alonso saw his world championship lead over Schumacher dwindle further after the German seven-time champion cut the margin after victory at Magny-Cours.
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