London: Formula One flops McLaren, hapless victims of woeful engine suppliers Honda, resulting in their plunge from decades of world dominance to also-rans status, are desperate to cling onto driver Fernando Alonso.

Whether or not they will do despite a £30m-plus wage offer will depend on their assurances that they will sit the Spaniard behind the wheel of a car quick and reliable enough to match his unbounded talents and eager zest to be a grand prix winner again. Maybe even the world champion for the third time.

Time, however, is running out for the 36-year-old. His patience, too, as he wracks up an increasingly embarrassing number of non-finishes and demotions to places nearer the back than the front in his slowcoach transport.

The F1 money-go-round would not grind to a halt from UK-based McLaren’s dogged persistence to retain the gifted racer, a winner 32 times from 283 GPs, but not since 2013 when he was victorious in his homeland grand prix.

The paddock is rife with rumour that at least two teams, the most eager being Williams, would happily match his salary for a shift over for the start of the 2018 season — but McLaren are full of reassurances that Honda will get their faded act together and will achieve a long-awaited and overdue breakthrough — at least to give him a chance of mixing it with the front runners if not to a winning and world championship earning level.

That earnestness of effort-in-the-making, a Japanese promise, a desperate bid to halt Honda’s blushes, has put a pause on Alonso’s anticipated McLaren exit — but that’s only upfront. Behind the scenes, behind his ready and forgiving smile I am told he is as frustrated, and often furious, as can be.

When he is forced into the shadows of lesser talents simply because they are enjoying drives in better, faster and more reliable race-worthy cars, the tragedy of a talent going to waste is a heartbreaker. And I would guess the moves made on him in secret to ditch besieged McLaren and cash in on the tempting offers of rivals are a constant issue.

The next guaranteed humbling will come this weekend in Monza, the scene of the Italian Grand Prix, round 13, a circuit that demands the highest of speeds … around 230mph … on an extremely challenging 53-lap test of the stamina of both men and their machines.

They are now long-gone dreams but Alonso knows the joy of being a noisily hailed winner on the track with the greatest fan base and atmosphere of them all. He has been triumphant there twice in 2007 and 2010, twice runner-up in 2005-13 and third in 2011-12 with fastest laps in 2007-10-16. And he reveals: “I only want to stay in Formula One if I can have a car that can be a winner.”

A totally different perspective from the back to the very front of the grid for the 190m race revolves around the relentlessly riveting set-to between duellers Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton with a sure-fire spectacle of close racing between them to heighten the excitement for jam-packed and legendary Monza, half-an-hour’s drive from Milan.

Hamilton, 32, three times the world champion, is on five wins so far against four-times champion Vettel’s four — but because of the German’s better placings when Hamilton ran into trouble early on in the season he is seven points ahead of the great Briton. And their battle is a dead certainty to tighten as the F1 show leaves Europe after this Sunday to go to the farther reaches of the grand prix globe. Top form Hamilton grabbed a priceless hat-trick last time out in the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps — with a stunning win from pole and a new breathtaking lap record. He managed to hold off Vettel whose last minute burst and a courageous plunge for an inside overtake almost paid off.

Monza has been a happy hunting ground for Hamilton with three wins, two second places and a third. Vettel, 30, has crossed the line first three times with one second spot and one third, too.

The scene is all set for a memorable Sunday afternoon rip-roaring showdown to remember in a season fast building up to be a nail-biter between two drivers fast … very fast. becoming legends.

— The author is an expert on motorsport