According to Autosport‘s Jonathan Noble, the McLaren F1 Team are in a final push to hire either Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso to lead the team in their new Honda era.

Noble reported that Eric Boullier and Ron Dennis are hard at work to secure the two top-rated F1 drivers as soon as possible.

Vettel is still under contract and commited to Red Bull until the end of 2015 and Alonso remains under contract until the end of 2016, but this has not seemed to deter McLaren at all. As a matter of fact, Autosport reports that the team has told them that it is willing to wait until 2016 or even 2017 if necessary as long as they get a firm commitment now.

The team clearly need the commitment now so that they can finalise their shorter term plans. Thusfar, McLaren has refused to finalise their 2015 line-up until Vettel and Alonso’s longer term plans are clear. This has left their current drivers, Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen hanging around on the sidelines and very unsure of their futures. Button has even indicated that he may be facing retirement in the near future.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier told Autosport in an exclusie interview that the team was doing all it could to win over Alonso and Vettel and that they will not give up until both drivers have categorically declined accepting a deal with the team.

On being asked about the chances of getting one two drivers, Boullier told Autosport, “I will try any driver that will suit our strategy for the future.

“We are still pushing and we will take the time we need. We don’t want to do a mistake – we have one shot and we don’t want to miss it.

“McLaren is a top team, a big team, with a lot of history and we want to be back where we should be.

“So if we can afford to take the time to think and to prepare our strategy then we have to do it.”

McLaren is expecting to get an answer from Alonso and Vettel very soon and plans to sort out their 2015 driver lineup before the final flyaway races get underway with the Singapore Grand Prix next month.

Boulier would not elaborate any further on when exactly a decision could be expected but apparently made it clear that McLaren would not wait until the winter before deciding on their line-up for next year.

“It will be soon, a few weeks,” he said.

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