Alonso says no point in "exploding" over McLaren form

While Alonso scored his best result of the season in Hungary before the summer break, his car is still far from the top, and the Spaniard is expecting two difficult races in Spa and Monza given the power deficit of the Honda engine.

Alonso's friend and former F1 driver Mark Webber said earlier this year that the Spaniard was a "time bomb" waiting to explode as he continued to struggle in the midfield despite being considered one of the best racers in the field.

The Spaniard, however, insisted there is nothing to gain from "exploding" about a lack of results.

"There's no benefit if I do that. There's no benefit," said Alonso at Spa. "If I explode and I gain one second in the next race because they work harder, I'd do it.

"But we are as fast as we can [be] and all the guys are doing their maximum so I'm thankful for that, but obviously we need more."

He added: "I always stay calm and try to work and believe everyone's job. It's not that we are underperforming because our group of people wants to underperform. Everyone is doing 100 percent.

"I showed everyone that I have faith in everything. From the first day until the last day I always believed in the project and I always tried to be positive and optimistic and keep working 24 hours a day."

September deadline

The two-time champion, whose contract with McLaren expires this year, is yet to decide his future, having stated that he will start thinking about it next month.

McLaren confirmed this week that Stoffel Vandoorne will stay on next year, but Alonso insisted that has not changed anything or added any extra pressure to make up his mind quickly.

"No, not really. Zero pressure or zero anything," he said, when asked about the impact of the Vandoorne move. "I will make the decision about my future when I want, and that's it.

"It didn't change anything. I always said that in September I will think about it and it's the 24th of August, so still one more week of freedom."

Ilmor factor

One key element behind Alonso's final decision will be the engine that McLaren chooses - as it weighs up whether to stick with Honda or try to convince Renault to give it customer powerunits.

McLaren's decision has been made tougher by recent gains that outside consultant Ilmor has made for Honda, which could lead to good progress for 2018.

When asked by Motorsport.com if the engine choice was the vital factor for his 2018 decision, Alonso said: "Not really. It's the performance what will dictate what I will do and the conditions of next year."

Pushed on whether the Ilmor situation had left McLaren facing a difficult decision, Alonso replied: "I don't think there is a tough choice."

Alonso said he could not dictate the level of progress that Honda would make, but was sure the Japanese manufacturer was doing all it could to move forward.