Ron Dennis insists Fernando Alonso will drive for McLaren in 2016 and says his comments about the Spaniard taking a sabbatical next year were taken out of context.
In Abu Dhabi Dennis told reporters he was "open" to the possibility of Alonso sitting out next season after McLaren's frustrating debut campaign with Honda power units. Alonso was forced to deny the words of McLaren's CEO, saying that it is his "intention" is to race, though his statement that "you can never say 100 percent anything" led to some suggesting it was still a possibility.
Dennis has stressed he was talking more widely about the many options that have been discussed during the course of the year and only mentioned a sabbatical with the clarification Alonso will be in the car for 2016.
"Fernando's in the car next year," Dennis told Sky Sports F1. "He told everybody yesterday. Somebody asked me whether it was feasible he could have a sabbatical year and I said anything's feasible; we talk about it being one of the options but the same journalist forgets that I said at the end of it 'but Fernando and Jenson are driving next year'.
"So off goes the story when in reality I made it explicitly clear yesterday, as I am now, that the two drivers for next year are Jenson [Button] and Fernando."
Alonso did little to distance himself from the rumours after the 2015 finale in Abu Dhabi, bringing up the World Endurance Championship he has long been linked with to complain about the lack of fun and "common sense" in Formula One after being hit with a drive-through penalty for a first corner collision with Pastor Maldonado.