Fernando Alonso has dropped the clearest signal that he may only be using the Renault team as a stop-over en route to a more competitive seat that will allow him to fight for the Formula One world title.
Speaking to journalists after the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he scraped the final point as Ferrari and McLaren battled it out for the podium, Alonso admitted that he has a get-out clause in his contract with the regie that could see him move on at the end of the season - his first back at Enstone after an acrimonious year with McLaren.
Although he insists that his return to Renault was prompted not only by the chance to escape Woking, but by the hope that Flavio Briatore's team would return to the front of the field, where it was in 2005-06 when he won his first two titles, Alonso acknowledges that there is a lot of work to do to return the team to Ferrari-McLaren levels, and admits that he may leave if the turnaround cannot be achieved.
"I'm at Renault because I wanted to get back to winning, if not this year then next year," the Spaniard pointed out, "but I have an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car."
Renault, coming off a poor year in 2007, has much ground to make up on the early pacesetters, and Alonso says that he does not expect the team to be making any waves.
"[The performance in the opening two rounds] was more or less as we expected," he said, "We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult and if it hadn't been for Massa's retirement [in Malaysia] we wouldn't have made it. That's the reality. It was no surprise."
There were several teams apparently vying for Alonso's signature when it became clear that he was free to leave McLaren, including BMW Sauber and Toyota - both of which finished ahead of Renault at Sepang - but one remains favourite to land the Asturian should he move on again in the next year or so.
crash.net
Speaking to journalists after the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he scraped the final point as Ferrari and McLaren battled it out for the podium, Alonso admitted that he has a get-out clause in his contract with the regie that could see him move on at the end of the season - his first back at Enstone after an acrimonious year with McLaren.
Although he insists that his return to Renault was prompted not only by the chance to escape Woking, but by the hope that Flavio Briatore's team would return to the front of the field, where it was in 2005-06 when he won his first two titles, Alonso acknowledges that there is a lot of work to do to return the team to Ferrari-McLaren levels, and admits that he may leave if the turnaround cannot be achieved.
"I'm at Renault because I wanted to get back to winning, if not this year then next year," the Spaniard pointed out, "but I have an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car."
Renault, coming off a poor year in 2007, has much ground to make up on the early pacesetters, and Alonso says that he does not expect the team to be making any waves.
"[The performance in the opening two rounds] was more or less as we expected," he said, "We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult and if it hadn't been for Massa's retirement [in Malaysia] we wouldn't have made it. That's the reality. It was no surprise."
There were several teams apparently vying for Alonso's signature when it became clear that he was free to leave McLaren, including BMW Sauber and Toyota - both of which finished ahead of Renault at Sepang - but one remains favourite to land the Asturian should he move on again in the next year or so.
crash.net