SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Fernando Alonso has been impressed by McLaren-Honda's progress in the past year, but says his main interest lies in what can be achieved in 2017 and how new regulations will change the feel of the cars.
Alonso's contract with McLaren is due to expire at the end of 2017 and he has previously said his decision on whether to renew will be based on whether next year's cars are more interesting to drive. Speaking on Thursday at Spa-Francorchamps, he said he is hoping the new regulations for 2017 will offer similar thrills to those he experienced in previous years of his career.
"Next year I finish my contract with McLaren -- the one that I have now -- so I have to make a decision if I can continue in Formula One or not. In the last couple of years -- in this turbo engine era -- I think the cars are a little bit different to drive, but I don't say if it's better or worse.
"Everyone will have his opinion, but I have been lucky enough to drive 2003 cars, 2004 and 2005 ... even until 2009 the cars were, in my opinion, more extreme and more Formula One cars. Now when I see GP2 cars running three seconds away in FP1, it feels a bit sad. The cars are heavy, no grip, we save fuel, we save tyres, we save everything from lap one. It's a little bit against the instinct of the driver and next year is a big question mark.
"The regs and everything will change a little bit and if the cars are fun to drive and exciting to drive, I will probably stay longer and drive more years in Formula One, but if the cars are still giving me the feeling I had in the last couple of years I will stop. But it is not related to if you are competitive, you are either enjoying driving the car or not enjoying it and right now, in my opinion, the cars are not enjoyable. But that's probably because I drove older cars, and if you arrive now to Formula One these cars are probably very fast and very fun to drive, but not for me anymore."
McLaren-Honda has made progress this year and arrives at Spa this weekend with a major engine upgrade.
"If you look at the team 12 months ago we were in a very different situation. We were starting last here using, I think, our ninth engine of the year here in Spa and we were lapped two times here last year, so definitely we have made a step of minutes, not even seconds, in total race time so we are in a much better position. We are enjoying it and the progress is looking optimistic, and for next year as well.
"We look forward to this weekend, we have some updates on the car, but we know that Spa and Monza will be some tricky races for us in terms of layout and characteristics of the circuits, but definitely we are enjoying our time now, seeing the progress, and we are hungry for more."
But asked whether he thought McLaren should still be working on improving its 2016 car, he simply said: "Well, I think we want to be world champions. So this year it is not anymore possible."