Fernando Alonso could take a sabbatical from Formula 1 next year if McLaren remain uncompetitive, the team's chairman Ron Dennis says.
Alonso is contracted until the end of 2017, but McLaren struggled in their first year with engine partner Honda.
Former F1 driver Mark Webber, who is close to Alonso, said he believed the 34-year-old would make a final decision after trying the 2016 McLaren in pre-season testing next February.
"I think he is a ticking bomb," Webber said. "I think give him two or three days in the car and if the car is uncompetitive I think he'll have a year off."
Nevertheless, insiders have continued to express doubts about whether Alonso, who left Ferrari for McLaren at the end of last season because he believed they would give him a better chance of winning a third world title, could face another season at the back of the grid.
There have been suggestions since Japan that if the Honda engine remains uncompetitive in 2016, Alonso could take a year out and come back to fulfil the final two years of his contract in 2017 and 2018.
Although he and team-mate Jenson Button have generally remained positive and optimistic in their public utterances in 2015, their frustrations have occasionally surfaced.
McLaren will almost certainly finish ninth of 10 teams in the championship this season, meaning their garage will be moved to the far end of the pit lane.
I think that the spanish pilot of F1, Fernando Alonso, maybe will take a sabbatical year because lately the things are bad for him, the car always has problems. If the car (McLaren) in 2017 is good I think that he will continue and he will try to win his third world title, but if the things continue bad maybe the veteran spanish pilot would take a final decision, retire.
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