McLaren would be willing to sign up Fernando Alonso for five more years, new team executive Zak Brown has hinted.
The Spaniard has been with McLaren-Honda since he left Ferrari after 2014, but he is now letting his frustration with the hapless Anglo-Japanese collaboration show.
Yet Brown, McLaren's new executive, thinks that there is a chance Alonso will stay for more in 2018.
"He's very motivated and fit - he has five years ahead of him if he wants it," Marca quotes the American as saying.
"I'm very keen for him to stay and I think he will if we give him a car."
As for Alonso's obvious signs of frustration, Brown responded: "No-one is more desperate to win than Fernando.
"But he has behaved impeccably. He has said what he feels because the facts are the facts and he is the best driver in the world."
McLaren head into the Chinese Grand Prix pointless, Stoffel Vandoorne and Alonso having finished 13th and 14th in Melbourne.
