Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso confirms he held sabbatical talks with Dennis

Fernando Alonso admits the idea of a sabbatical was discussed with Ron Dennis earlier this season but has not been seriously considered.

Dennis said on Saturday in Abu Dhabi that Alonso could take a sabbatical in 2016 if the McLaren-Honda was still uncompetitive, but would return to complete the remaining two years of his contract after that. Alonso later called Dennis' comments "strange", saying it is not his intention to take a year out at this stage.

Asked if he ever spoke to Dennis about a sabbatical, Alonso replied: "I have discussed many crazy ideas, but not at this point of the year.

"We are progressing well but unfortunately we don’t see the progress we are making because we have been unlucky recently. I think in Spa we had the penalty of the engines, Monza the penalty, Russia a penalty, Austin a mechanical problem, in Mexico I didn’t race, in Brazil I was only driving half of the weekend and here I had a puncture.

"So the last five or six races the results have been a little bit unfair in representing how we have progressed with the car performance. So, our attention and our minds have been on next year and we feel much more positive than three or four months ago with the recent pace of the car.

"It’s something that we didn’t talk about for four or five months already."

REPORT: Rosberg continues qualifying run with Abu Dhabi pole

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Qualifying

Between the lines at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.