Dennis coy on Alonso future

Dennis has again adamantly insisted the matter will not be up for discussion until after Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix in which the destiny of this year's world title will be decided.

"Fernando has a contract with our team." Said Dennis. "We said last week, two weeks ago, four weeks ago, we aren't going to have any dialogue with our drivers about whether they may or may not wish to stay in our team until after this grand prix."

He added: "We are concentrating on the world championship, but the results speak for themselves this year - a great driver, a great talent, and I don't think any team would not recognise that."

Alonso has a chance of winning a third successive championship at Interlagos, but that bid has been overshadowed by his bitter and rocky relationship with Dennis and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Since it emerged Alonso demanded number-one status within the team, otherwise threatening he would release details of emails that would prove damaging in the spy scandal, his position has appeared untenable.

The suspicion is the 26-year-old Spaniard will return to Renault for next year, the team that made him champion in 2005 and 2006.

Dennis also shied away from revealing whether his relationship with Alonso had improved since admitting at the Court of Appeal hearing into the spy case last month they were no longer on speaking terms.

"I've tried to step back from both drivers in this difficult situation," added Dennis. "I've tried to be even-handed and available to both of them, and I've tried to make sure their engineers and the rest of the team dedicated to their cars understand the sensitivities that exist.

"I'm available to anybody at any time, but I'm not going to push myself into any situation."