This is "most certainly a make or break year" for Fernando Alonso, but perhaps for McLaren too, according to Daniel Johnson of the London TELEGRAPH. The team has been "bleeding sponsors:" Johnnie Walker to Force India, Tag Heuer to Red Bull and Hugo Boss to Mercedes, at least two of those because execs "were at odds" with McLaren Chair Ron Dennis. The car "is black, grey and bare." The livery "sums up the misery of their situation." The stakes "could not be higher for everyone involved." Alonso’s "magnificent career, which brought two world titles nearly 10 years ago, could be over by the end of winter testing if the car is not to his liking." Dennis "could and should be ousted by McLaren’s Bahraini owners if much more of this goes on." Dennis "returned to the helm two years ago with hopes of bringing McLaren back to the front -- not to mention bolstering his chances of a knighthood." It has been an "unmitigated disaster." For Honda too, the team's "beleaguered engine supplier," they have a year to prove their boast that racing runs deep to the company’s core. Expectations "were wildly overoptimistic, but even the most cautious of predictions could not have foreseen how awful the Japanese manufacturer would have been on their first year back" (TELEGRAPH, 12/30).
