MONTREAL, Canada -- Fernando Alonso believes there is a good chance McLaren will be able to challenge for the championship as early as next year.
Since rejoining the team at the start of 2015, Alonso's chances of winning his elusive third world title have looked as slim as ever. His contract is due to expire at the end of next year, making 2017 a crucial year for Alonso's future as well as an opportunity for McLaren to make big gains under a new set of regulations.
"First, it's not that unlikely that we will fight for the championship next year, who knows?" he said. "The rule changes is quite an opportunity for all of us and teams that are in the midfield now could have a good chance next year to recover a lot of the gap.
"I think we have another few months now on the engine that I think will be quite important for recovering the power that we are missing, so I think things are quite open for next year. I am not that pessimistic and I am not thinking that we will not be in that fight, who knows?
"And then for my future I will see next year around summer time or something, so for the next 12 months I will not speak about the future. But we will see, I finish the contract at the end of next year and there a lot of changes coming for the regulations, tyres, hopefully performance, which could make the cars more attractive to drive again.
"Now it is a little bit frustrating how we drive these cars and how we save all the things in the cars. It's against your instinct what we have right now and I will decided after next summer."
Asked if he would prefer McLaren to focus on the new regulations in 2017 rather than continue to develop the current car, Alonso said the team was big enough to do both.
"Obviously there are some areas where you can have an advantage this year and next year, such as the engine and the fuel and power unit, plus some aspects on the mechanical side of the car. I think we need to combine these things and also for the team it's important to finish as high as possible in terms of the constructors' championship.
"It's not that you can stop completely this year and we will try to do both things. We are a big team and we are able, I think, to do both things at the same time."