McLaren unsure if Alonso will stay

McLaren boss Zak Brown admits he is unsure if Fernando Alonso will remain with the team beyond the 2018 season, but has suggested that the Spaniard will be offered his seat again. Speaking at Thursday's press conference to preview the Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso failed to commit his future to Formula 1.

After falling out of title contention with his return to McLaren, the two-time world champion has moved his focus from matching Michael Schumacher's F1 milestones to capturing the 'Triple Crown' of motorsport.

Graham Hill is the only driver in history to win the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours, with two-time Monaco winner Alonso a favourite for the famous endurance race in 2018, having come up short in Indy last year.

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Brown has sanctioned Alonso's desire to compete in series outside of F1 since replacing Ron Dennis at the top of McLaren, but the American believes his star driver remains focused on success in the premier formula.

Brown told Sky Sports: "We will look at the driver line-up in the middle of the year. We'll see what Fernando wants to do.

"I think Formula 1 is his passion, but he has been doing it a long time so we have got to see what he wants to do. But hopefully he will be with McLaren for a long time.

"He loves the McLaren environment, I don't think he has ever been happier driving for a racing team.

"I think his heart is definitely still in Formula 1 but he wants to win. He's going to wait and see how these developments come along - we have more developments coming - so in the middle of the year we will sit down and make a decision.

"But I expect to see Fernando racing something and I hope it has a McLaren badge on it."

Vandoorne's future in the team is far from secure and the likes of Lando Norris and Nyck de Vries could be biting at his heels in McLaren's junior program.

The Belgian is the only driver to be outqualified by his team-mate at every race in 2015 after five Saturdays, but Brown says that McLaren remain confident in the 2015 GP2 champion's abilities.

"Stoffel's coming along really well," Brown said.

"Both Stoffel and Fernando are doing a great job. Stoffel is up against the best guy in the world, as I think we all know, or certainly one of the top three and he has done a great job.

"Last year was a tricky year for him as a rookie, which actually I think will make him a better driver long-term dealing with that type of adversity."