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Brown putting the onus on McLaren to keep Alonso onboard

Zak Brown fully understands Fernando Alonso's undecided stance on the future, insisting McLaren will have to prove it's worth to its star driver in the coming months.

Alonso is enduring a third consecutive season of underperformance with McLaren, through no fault of his own as the two-time world champion continues to suffer from Honda's persistent performance and reliability issues.

Alonso has chosen to wait until the end of the summer to decide his future, saying he would be 'happy to talk to anyone' should McLaren-Honda's state of affairs not drastically improve.

"I totally understand his position, he’s a two-time World Champion that wants to be a three-time World Champion and he’s only going to do that with a car that can win,” Brown said.

"As he said, he would love to stay at McLaren and we’ve given him a great environment, he really enjoys it here, we’ve got to give him a winning car.

"It's hard to know when that will be other than we’ve produced lots of winning cars [in Formula 1 history].

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Pointing towards the recent past, Brown said that a bad situation can be turned around.

"We’ve seen other engine manufacturers make significant progress over [the course of] a season if you look at Renault a couple of years ago, where they started and where they ended up.

"As he said, he’s going to wait until after the summer break, which is what we’ve agreed.

"So I think all we can do right now is put our head down and try and demonstrate we’re going to be in a position to win next year, by the time he’s [Alonso] ready to make a decision."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.