McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh confirms interest in re-signing Fernando Alonso

Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that he would like to sign Fernando Alonso for 2014 and refused to confirm that Jenson Button and Sergio Perez will continue to drive for the team next season.

What is for certain is that, even if Alonso can be lured back to Woking, Button will stay on with the team for at least another year. "What Jenson said is accurate," confirmed Whitmarsh in reference to the Englishman's announcement on Thursday. Instead, just a year after replacing Lewis Hamilton alongside Button, it is Perez whose position is under threat. The young Mexican has failed to impress convincingly this term, and the bountiful sponsorship money Perez has brought to McLaren is perhaps not quite as valuable as it was a year ago following the reunion with Honda which will save the team a small fortune in fees to Mercedes. "We have a strong line-up but the question I was asked yesterday was 'would you fancy hiring Fernando Alonso?' and I honestly answered that, which is 'yes, as any team would,'" Whitmarsh ratified. Alonso has yet to comment directly on the speculation, although he certainly didn't sound like a driver on the verge of quitting Ferrari when he addressed the press corps in Singapore. Yet the old adage that appearances can be deceptive is never truer than in F1. "There's no doubt about it that the relationship between Alonso and Ferrari has soured these past few weeks and months, and we know he's been looking around at options," mused Sky F1's Martin Brundle. "Maybe Ferrari felt they needed to cover that off with Raikkonen; I can't believe that has pleased Alonso enormously - although he'll obviously say differently, because he clearly wants the team all to himself. "Maybe Honda's an option? McLaren have got to stop the rot of this year really. They need to come back. Jenson's still a world-class driver, no doubt about that, but they need to be able to demonstrate to future sponsors that they've got a grand plan." Re-signing Alonso would certainly do that.