Fernando Alonso has denied telling McLaren that he will only stay if the Woking team ditches engine partner Honda.

After three years Alonso has little to show for his time with the two legends whose attempts to recreate the success of the late 80s and early 90s have fallen spectacularly flat.

While a split with Honda would cost McLaren money, the loss of the Spanish star would hit a team struggling to find a title sponsor at a time it has already lost more sponsors than it would choose to admit to.

In recent weeks, despite both McLaren and Alonso claiming that no decision on their respective plans would be made until late September, there have been claims that, exasperated by Honda's continuing poor form, the Spaniard has issued a 'them or me' ultimatum to the team... not the first time the driver has tried such tactics at Woking.

Speaking at Monza today however, Alonso denied that he has issued any form of ultimatum to the team.

"That's absolutely not true," he told reporters. "I have absolutely not decided.

"More than anything I’m not bigger than a team," he insisted.

"I think we do have now some ingredients to be champions," he said. "I think the team did improve a lot in the last three years, I think we have the talent in the team, we have the facilities. "We just miss being more competitive. We will see what the numbers are saying for next year and after that try to make a decision."

When asked if he believed Honda might yet get its act together, he shrugged and replied: "You never know... it could be possible. Why not?"

Famously, Alonso attempted to strong-arm Ron Dennis in 2007 at a time the Spaniard was clearly threatened by rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton. Dennis' refusal to yield to Alonso was to kick-start the unravelling of the Spygate scandal that led to McLaren being excluded from the championship and fined $100m.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 01/09/2017 7:16

"@Chris Roper
Nice theory, except Ron got booted out of McLaren several months ago!
Alonso's a big boy (who gets a BIG paycheck) and he evaluated the prospects of Honda\McLaren and decided it was worth a punt.
Sadly for him (and us McLaren fans) this gamble hasn't paid off: though the chassis isn't too shabby the PU is pants. C'est la Guerre.

Sod's Law states that as soon as McLaren ditch Honda's PU and\or Alonso ditches McLaren it will come good.......

"

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2. Posted by Chris Roper, 31/08/2017 21:11

"The sentence - Dennis' refusal to yield to Alonso was to kick-start the unravelling of the Spygate scandal that led to McLaren being excluded from the championship and fined $100m. - makes the cynic in me wonder if the current situation is not a deliberate pay back by Ron Dennis determined to ruin Alonso's career."

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Alonso denies giving McLaren ultimatum

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