Alonso hints at future Porsche/WEC deal

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Fernando Alonso has dropped a major hint he will race for Porsche in the World Endurance Championship in future in a tribute message to Mark Webber.

The Spaniard has been linked with a Porsche drive for a number of years, with a provisional deal to race in the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours understood to have fallen through, with Nico Hulkenberg eventually getting the drive and winning the race on debut.

Webber retired from sportscar racing at the end of this season, with this weekend's 6 Hours of Bahrain his final race. At the end of season WEC Gala, a tribute video to the Australian was played featuring a number of messages from drivers across a number of categories, with Alonso hinting he would race for Porsche in future.

“You’ve had a fantastic career and now all your success with Porsche," Alonso said. "You didn’t wait for me there, it could have been nice but I think you will still be around and I will ask you many things when I join your adventure. A really great man and from my heart all the best.”

Alonso's current contract with McLaren runs out at the end of the 2017 season, with the Spaniard having made clear he wants the new F1 regulations to provide more enjoyment for the drivers.

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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.