McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has ꩲplayed down the chance of Fernando Alonso returning to the team to drive its 2019 Formula 1 car during the upcoming pre-season tests.

Brown previously said towards the end of last season that McLaren would be 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:open to the possibility of the double world champion getting some track time in its MCL34 prior to t🎉he start of the🐽 upcoming campaign. 

But during McLaren’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:unveiling of its latꦯest F1 challenger on Thursday, the team said it was pꦜlanning to run new drivers Carlos Sainz and rookie Lando Norris across both tests at Barcelona.   

“Right now we’re taking testing one day at a time and focusing on 🌌our racing drivers,” Brown replied when asked about the likelihood of Alonso featuring. 

“Anytime you are going into pre-season ꧑testing and you are doing everything fo꧑r reliability and performance, you kind of have a set plan but you work a day at a time.” 

Brown did not rule out a reser♒ve driver role for Alonso during 20💖19, though he added McLaren has a “variety” of options should it need one. 

Formula 2 driver Sergio Sette Camara was signed as a reserve driver at the end of 2018, though th🌄e Brazilian does not currently have enough points to qualify for a superlicence, while Nyck de Vries - who is eligible for a super✅licence - has not been handed a role within the team despite his long-term association as a McLaren junior. 

“Fernando is still part of the team with our Indy 500 project,” he explained. “Gil ultimately leads our kind of driver plan so we have a few plans in directions th🦩at we could go if we need a reserve driver. 

“I think we will probably stop short of announcing a reserve driver but I think there is a variety of drivers out there that if we need someone on short not♔ice could fi🀅ll that role.”