Alonso says he is not interested in a return to McLaren F1 team
Fernando Alonso insists he is not interested in returning to McLaren, while adding that he bears no grudges from his turbulent 2007 season there
With McLaren evaluating potential replacements for Sergio Perez and considering a move for Alonso, the Spaniard downplayed the attraction of a return to the team.
He stressed that it was the team's philosophy of letting him and Lewis Hamilton fight for a 2007 title that Kimi Raikkonen ultimately pipped them to that he had a problem with.
Alonso hinted that the fact that Ron Dennis stood down from the team principal position in 2009 to focus on his role as executive chairman of McLaren Group removed a source of tension.
Alonso and McLaren: why it didn't work
But when asked whether team principal Martin Whitmarsh's positive comments about him made a return to McLaren in 2014 or '15 tempting, Alonso replied: "Not really. I repeat it more or less every weekend and I keep repeating it, I love Ferrari and I will stay at Ferrari until the end.
"It's nice to hear comments from all the team principals every year saying they respect my job and professionalism, especially McLaren.
"There were so many rumours that we had a lot of problems that year [2007] but I always said that there are no problems with anyone, it was just the philosophy of the team, especially one man in the team that is not there [anymore].
"It is good to have these comments but there is no intention. I have three more years with Ferrari and I hope many more to come if we can extend the contract and that would be my hope."
Alonso insists that he backs Ferrari's decision to recruit Raikkonen to partner him next season.
"Of course," he said when asked if he is happy to be paired with Raikkonen. "I was pushing a lot for that decision and finally they took Kimi.
"Together with Felipe [Massa], I have had four fantastic years and when the team decided to change Felipe, in the market Kimi, in my opinion, was the best option for next year.
"But what we need to do now is fight for the 2013 championship."
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