McLaren admit interest in Alonso; Perez at risk - MotorSportsTalk

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that he is interested in signing Fernando Alonso as the raft of rumors concerning the driver market continue to circulate.

Reports from the paddock broke on Friday evening suggesting that McLaren could be angling to re-sign Alonso, who spent one year with the team back in 2007. Despite finishing third in the championship, a dispute with the team over then-rookie Lewis Hamilton caused the Spaniard to walk away and return to Renault for 2008. However, Whitmarsh is open to bringing Alonso back to the team.

“We’re interested, but at the moment we’ve got to be respectful of what is going in Ferrari and see how it pans out,” Whitmarsh explained after FP1 in Singapore.

“Fernando is under contract as far as I know, so we’ll see what happens there. We’re open to opportunity, and we’ve proved that in the past. No-one expected Jenson to come to us when he did, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

Whitmarsh admitted that bringing in another top name to work alongside Button would be desirable, suggesting that Sergio Perez could be dropped by the team after just one season.

“Bringing JB was something that I was delighted to do; to bring another top name like that in would be fantastic. But equally, to be frank, bringing a youngster in and turning him into a champion is pretty nice as well. That’s the great thing about hiring drivers, sometimes it goes well.”

Yesterday in Singapore, both Button and Perez seemed confident that they would be staying at the team for 2014, but in the latter’s case, it appears that he may be under pressure to perform in the coming races.

It is thought that Alonso is unsettled at Ferrari, publicly criticizing the team following the Hungarian Grand Prix and calling them “idiots” over the radio during the race at Monza. Furthermore, the signing of Kimi Raikkonen for 2014 sees the Spaniard lose his ‘number one’ status at Maranello, and, with McLaren and Honda joining forces once again for 2015, he could be poised to make a shock move back to Woking.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”