Former Australian F1 driver Mark Webber made his presence known over the course of the Australian Grand Prix weekend, however, instead of just reporting what was going on the former Red Bull Racing driver hinted to the world that Fernando Alonso was on the verge of walking out of McLaren Honda.
Alonso, who retired from tenth place in Sunday’s race, has been quite vocal over the past year or so on how disappointed he is with the way the Honda powered charger is handling and although it’s reliability seemed to pick up at the end of 2016, testing for this season proved disastrous in this regard.
If you were at the Albert Park Circuit on the weekend, even if your eyes weren’t on the track, you could tell whenever the McLaren was on track due to its rather ‘unique’ sound and the times going on the board were definitely leaving a lot to be desired.
"Maybe Fernando is not there the whole year," Webber told Sporza. "Maybe Stoffel Vandoorne has a different teammate at some point. Fernando might not do the whole year, you never know. He's frustrated. He doesn't even want to finish seventh or sixth. Maybe points for Stoffel is quite nice. Fernando is not interested in points. He wants to fight for the podium, so Fernando is mentally a long way away from where he wants to be."
2017 is the third and final year of his contract with McLaren Honda, so if results don’t come this season, or they don’t do a deal with the likes of Mercedes for an engine sully in 2018, Webber could be very right.
