Fernando Alonso cannot simply leave McLaren after one season to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes if an opening comes up, according to McLaren chairman Ron Dennis.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has described Alonso as “the top alternative” should contract talks with Hamilton – who’s deal ends this year – fail to materialise.
Some have speculated that Alonso has performance clauses in his contract which would allow him to jump ship after just one year at the Woking team, but that’s not the case.
“No McLaren driver has ever had performance clauses in his contract and that is the case with Alonso,” Dennis told BBC Sport.
Therefore Alonso is likely to have to see out his three-year deal. Though it’s not uncommon for drivers to negotiate their way out of a deal at great expense, and Alonso has already split with McLaren early when in 2007 he left one year into a two-year deal due to “differences”.
Dennis also took the opportunity to deny rumours started by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko that McLaren contacted Christian Horner about heading up the team in 2015.
When asked if McLaren did in fact contact the Red Bull team principal, Dennis said: “Not to my knowledge and I certainly didn’t.”
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