McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the British team is still hopeful that Fernando Alonso will make his debut for the team this year.

The Spaniard is under contract to Renault until the end of December, and with the French team, and in particular team boss Flavio Briatore, still smarting from the secret deal which saw Alonso sign for McLaren in late 2005, it was always unlikely that an early release would be agreed to. Indeed, Renault sources have previously told Pitpass that the Spaniard would not be allowed to leave before the agreed time.

However, speaking to reporters at McLaren's HQ today, Whitmarsh insisted that he remains hopeful that a solution might be found, and revealed that he will speak to Flavio in Monaco on Friday at the FIA awards ceremony.

"Being frank, we'd like him in the car as quickly as we can," said Whitmarsh. "After this week there's one more test and we'd like Renault to recognise everything that he's done for them and release him to come and test for us next week.

"We have requested it," he admitted, "and if they said yes, we could do it. The earlier we can get Fernando in the car, the better.

"If, after two bottles of champagne, Flavio agrees on Friday night then we'll rush around to get him in the car next week," added Whitmarsh, referring to Alonso rather than Briatore.

"We're not counting on it," he admitted, "but if the opportunity arose we'd love to do it. If they say no again, then we'll respect it but we'll keep asking until there's no more chance."

After a (by their standards), disappointing season, their first since 1996 in which they have failed to win a single race, team boss Ron Dennis remains hopeful for the coming season.

"I don't want to make any predictions," he said. "We feel as far as we are concerned that we have prepared well. There's a whole range of things that make us feel good. We are extremely well-funded for the next five to 10 years, we've got a great driver line-up and everything looks very good from the maths we are doing inside.

"The ingredients feel right but we don't know what our competition are doing," he added.