Fernando Alonso insists he is keeping his options open for next season as he prepares to determine his future in Formula One.
Double world champion Alonso is coming towards the end of his three-year contract at McLaren, but is yet to announce his definitive plans for 2018.
The 36-year-old Spaniard, who won the last of his two championships more than a decade ago, is desperate to fight for a third title, but he has scored only 10 points this term following McLaren's ongoing troubles with engine partner Honda.
Alonso's options for next year however, appear slim with both Mercedes and Ferrari not keen on a move for the McLaren man.
Kimi Raikkonen, who turns 38 in October, was retained by Ferrari for another season earlier this week, while a switch to Red Bull is also out of the question with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo under contract for 2018.
McLaren, whose own future with Honda is also in doubt, could prove to be Alonso's only choice should he choose to extend his Grand Prix career into a 17th campaign.
"I went to Greece to have a holiday and I did not think too much about the future," Alonso said ahead of the sport's return to action at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.
"I always said I would think about the future in September, and we still have one more week to go.
"I don't know which teams have confirmed for next year. I read Kimi was confirmed, but I don't know exactly what I will do until I look at the options. When September arrives, I will have to think through those options."
The high-speed nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is unlikely to favour Alonso's McLaren team and their sluggish Honda package.
Alonso's team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who McLaren have confirmed will continue to race for them next year, is to begin his home Grand Prix from the back of the field following a series of engine penalties.
"I want to score points here even if on paper it seems very difficult," Alonso added.
"From the first day until the last day I always believe in the project and I always try to be positive and optimistic and keep working 24 hours a day.
"Nico Rosberg said 'I could not do what Fernando is doing'. Mark Webber is surprised that Fernando has 'not exploded', but I always stay calm and try to work, and believe in everyone's job.
"It is not that we are under-performing because a group of people want to under-perform. Everyone is giving 100 per cent.
"If I explode and we gain one second in the next race because the team worked harder I will do it, but we are as fast as we can, and all the guys are doing their maximum. I am thankful for that but we need more."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here