McLaren says 'works' status could attract Alonso

Not many well-informed insiders in the Suzuka paddock still believe Fernando Alonso will be a Ferrari driver in 2015.

In fact, the growing consensus is that the Spaniard's contract termination will be made public after the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

It appears that the most likely destinations for Alonso are either McLaren or Red Bull.

Eric Boullier thinks the Woking team's looming works Honda status makes McLaren the obvious favourite.

"I think we are for many reasons," he told Britain's Sky at Suzuka.

"We will be one of three works teams on the grid next season with our new engine partner and that will be a game changer," said the Frenchman.

Perhaps bolstering McLaren's chances of securing Alonso was the news on Friday that the team is preparing an interim test car to run the Honda V6 even before the official start of the test season next February.

"McLaren and Honda (are working) together to design and create an experimental test vehicle to check the power unit system," confirmed Honda's Yasuhisa Arai.

The next question will be the identity of Alonso's successor at Ferrari.

Jules Bianchi is putting his hand up for the job, but also linked with the seat is the increasingly disgruntled Red Bull driver and reigning quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Germany's Auto Bild claims relations between Red Bull and the German have "cooled considerably" in the last few weeks, as the team looks to the future with the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told SID news agency: "No comment."

Vettel also said the rumours are "not true".

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