Brown: Indycar decision does not depend on Alonso

Brown told Marca, "Fernando is very interested in IndyCar, he likes the series, but he has not decided what he wants to do yet."

Last year, after Brown orchestrated Alonso's Indianapolis 500 foray, McLaren were considering an Indycar programme and although this may be on the back-burner the team chief insisted that such a programme is not dependent on the double F1 world champion's plans.

Brown said of his team's Indycar ambitions, "The decision does not depend on him. Fernando is not only interested in the triple crown (winning the Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indy 500) I think he is also targeting the three titles: Formula 1, Indycar and WEC."

Andretti Autosport ran a car in McLaren colours for Alonso in last year's Indy 500. Although the Spaniard retired from the race when his Honda-powered Dallara stopped late in the race after he had led a few laps.

During the month of May, Alonso charmed the American racing scene with his enthusiasm, commitment and obvious talent.

Team chief Michael Andretti is keen to run Alonso for McLaren but has said he would ideally like a decision by the middle of this month.

However Brown says he is not aware of the deadline while revealing that there are other Indycar options on the table which the team is studying.

The McLaren chief explained, "I have not heard him put a date, that's Michael's date, that's assuming we're going to go with Michael and we could, but they're not our only option. We know we have to make a decision soon or we're going to run out of time to be properly prepared."

"We are in the process of deciding when to enter IndyCar and when we do it will be the beginning of a long commitment to the category."

"Formula 1 is our priority and we believe that to compete in IndyCar it has to be in a situation where we can be competitive. We think we can do that. It has to allow our brand to grow, but we have to be sure that it does not distract us from our goals in F1."

"Right now we are focused on F1, we have to make decisions about the drivers and we have just signed a new technical director [James Key] but while saying that we still have time to make a decision about IndyCar by 2019."

"We have several options for drivers and the announcement of our drivers will have an element of surprise," added Brown.

Indeed there are a myriad of options. One of these - signing Daniel Ricciardo - came to nought as Renault scooped the Australian on a two-year deal.

The option of Alonso remaining with the team is still very much a possibility, although his current teammate Stoffel Vandoorne's future is hanging in the balance as the team also has Carlos Sainz on their radar as well as their own junior drivers Lando Norris and Nyck de Vries.