'Variety of scenarios' available for 2019 McLaren line-up

McLaren chief Zak Brown has confessed that his team have a 'variety of different scenarios' available to them in regards to who will get behind the wheel for the 2019 campaign, with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne competing for the team this season.

Following the news that McLaren had ditched Honda engines in favour of Renault, Alonso signed a multi-year contract while Vandoorne continues to improve. For reserve driver, Lando Norris is ready to step in but confessed a few weeks ago he may have to leave the team if a driving spot does not open up quickly.

“There are a variety of different scenarios and it is like flicking the jackpot – it could be this, or this or that,” Brown told Crash.net.

“We know what the scenarios are but we haven’t set any expectations yet because you would be predicting too early what you think might happen.

“We’re in a great position where we have three great drivers and two seats which is a luxury situation to be in so we will see how things go before figuring out what the future looks like.”

Should McLaren decide to call up Norris or bring in another driver, Vandoorne will likely be the driver to step aside, but Brown has thrown support behind his current star and thinks he performed well against the star power of Alonso last season.

“They get equal treatment. Alonso gets a lot more of the publicity that doesn’t translate into any different effort in the garage from the engineers," the McLaren boss continued.

“Sometimes when you’ve got one part it will go to your more experienced driver. I don’t think that is any different to any other team. They have equal chance.

“I try to move around from garage to garage because I am sensitive to Fernando being such a superstar that you want Stoffel to know he’s got every bit as much support, which he does, but he handles it really well as he is very mature and never shows any signs or comments of that.

“I think he’s in a good place and is very headstrong.”