With Button, Raikkonen and Massa under threat, Alonso could be the oldest driver on the Formula 1 grid next year
Monday 20 June 2016 13:29, UK
Fernando Alonso has told Sky Sports News HQ he would be happy with either Jenson Button or Stoffel Vandoorne as his McLaren team-mate in 2017.
But the Spaniard has hinted his strong working relationship with Button should be taken into account when the team decide on their line-up for next season - a decision which will boil down to the team hierarchy opting between promoting the 24-year-old Vandoorne or extending the Englishman's stay with the team for an eighth season.
"Whatever the team decides, l will be happy with," Alonso said during an interview with Sky Sports News' Craig Slater in Baku. "I want to give my best for the team and if they take a decision for Jenson or for Stoffel it's because they think it's the best."
McLaren - who are delaying opening negotiations with Button until September - have previously hailed the all-champion pairing of Alonso and Button as the best driver line-up in F1.
Button remains hugely popular with McLaren's sponsors and has consistently impressed during the adversity of McLaren's reunion with Honda. "You give it your all, you give it your maximum and I feel that there's no one better than me at doing that through a race weekend," Button told Sky F1 in March.
Button's close working relationship - culminating in the pair's spoof visit to the podium in Brazil - with Alonso has also provided a rare glimmer of sunlight during the team's long winter and the Spaniard has indicated their bond should be a factor in their deliberations.
"In the last two years I have been working with Jenson fantastically well and that's probably something they need to think (about) as well," he added.
Alonso is under contract for 2017, the third and final year of the deal he signed when he rejoined the team at the end of 2014. But it's another detail concerning Alonso which may prove decisive in McLaren's decision. The Spaniard turns 35 next month while Button is already 36. Might that combined longevity make the youthful Vandoorne a compelling candidate?
The veterans on the 2016 grid certainly appear to be an endangered species - Williams are weighing up whether to retain their own veteran, the 35-year-old Felipe Massa, while the case for Ferrari keeping Kimi Raikkonen, 36 years young, has taken a hefty hit in the wake of his poor displays in Monaco and Montreal. It's highly feasible therefore that Alonso will be the oldest driver on the grid next year - although Sky Sports understands Williams may offer Button, who debuted with the team in F1 nearly twenty years ago, a career lifeline if he is dropped by McLaren.
