McLaren denied that it was in talks with twice world champion Fernando Alonso about the Spaniard's possible return to the Formula One team that he left only last month.

 

 

McLaren's Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain is helped by members of his team during a training session at the Jerez racetrack in southern Spain yesterday.

 

"McLaren is unaware of any current discussions with Fernando or his management," the team said in a statement.

 

Spain's AS daily sports newspaper reported that McLaren had in the last few days offered Alonso, who has yet to announce his plans for 2008, a one-year contract with the same terms and conditions as before.

 

It said Alonso would only consider returning if McLaren agreed in writing to various changes, including being able to follow his own race strategy apart from teammate Lewis Hamilton.

 

Even then, it said, a return was unlikely with Alonso unwilling to return while Ron Dennis remained as team boss.

 

McLaren has yet to announce a replacement for Alonso, who fell out with the team's management in a fraught season dominated by a spying controversy that cost the team a US$100 million fine and the loss of all its constructors' points.

 

Britain's Hamilton, 22, ended his rookie season in second place and ahead of Alonso on race placings after the two finished level on points and behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

 

Meanwhile, both Renault and McLaren will be in the spotlight when the International Automobile Federation (FIA)'s World Motor Sport Council meets in Monaco today.

 

The French team faces charges of unauthorized possession of confidential McLaren information while its Mercedes-powered rival is still under scrutiny for an earlier spying controversy involving Ferrari data.

 

Renault, which is accused of having McLaren data from September 2006 to October of this year, says its cars were untainted by information brought to them by former McLaren employee Phil Mackereth, who has since been suspended.

 

However McLaren believes its rival - champion in 2005 and 2006 with Alonso - gained an unfair advantage. A note leaked to reporters last month revealed that the information concerned 780 individual drawings "outlining the entire technical blueprint of the 2006 and 2007 McLaren cars."

 

It also alleged that up to 18 Renault employees, including seven engineering bosses and heads of department, had discussed the information.

 

Renault, which failed to win a race this year, faces potentially the same penalties as those imposed on McLaren earlier in the year.

 

Alonso is widely believed to be awaiting the outcome before committing himself to a return to Renault.

 

If his former team is heavily penalized, then the Spaniard may switch his focus elsewhere with Renault-powered Red Bull seen as the most likely alternative despite having both Australian Mark Webber and Briton David Coulthard under contract.

 

The World Motor Sport Council is expected to reach a decision today before turning its attentions to McLaren's 2008 car.

 

The FIA said after punishing the team in September that it would investigate further to ensure that no Ferrari data appeared in next year's car.

 

FIA president Max Mosley has suggested that any further sanctions could take the form of a "negative points allocation" for McLaren at the start of next season.

 

However Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone distanced himself from such talk.

 

"What Max said after the last World Council Meeting...was that if they (the FIA) found anything on the (McLaren) car, they could be (penalized)," he said last week.

 

"But they have got to have found something in there for a start and then the World Council has got to agree it."

 

FIA inspectors have been to the McLaren headquarters at Woking, with Mosley saying they would be looking for design ideas that could be traced to Ferrari rather than just copied components.

 

A McLaren spokeswoman said the team had no comment on either hearing.

 

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 6, 2007)