McLaren needs a "revolution" to retain Alonso - Briatore

The Woking team has continued to struggle this year, the third of its partnership with Honda, and currently lies at the bottom of the standings with just two points.

Alonso's contract with McLaren expires at the end of the year and he has made no secret of the fact that he wants to have a competitive car next season.

With no guarantees that McLaren will have a strong engine next year, Alonso admitted he is open to looking elsewhere if the situation does not improve quickly.

Briatore, however, says moving to another team would only make sense if it meant having a competitive package.

"You don't want as well to go in some team where you don't have a chance to win," Briatore, who is part of Alonso's management team, told Motorsport.com's GP Gazette. 

"We've done that already. A driver needs to be in a team where at least you have the possibility to fight for the podium.

"I believe the management of McLaren is moving very hard to have a better situation in the team.

"If McLaren can be competitive… Fernando feels very good in McLaren, honestly. The team worked very, very good with us in Indy, we appreciate all that.

"We'll see in a few months. Before the summer break something should happen. We're working together with the management of McLaren, and we try to find a solution.

"It's not nice seeing McLaren in this situation, not only for the driver, but for the team, for the engineers. They need to have a revolution, they need to have a shock, they need to have a future. Not only for Fernando, but for the employees.

"It's a great team, a great name, it's a shame to see them in this situation."

"Imagine if Messi had no club to go to"

Briatore is adamant Alonso is still the best driver in F1, and the former Benetton and Renault boss has compared the Spaniard's search for a competitive seat with the prospect of football superstar Lionel Messi being left without a team.

"For the moment we have a contract with McLaren, and we need to respect the contract up to then," he added. "And the future, we don't know yet, honestly.

"For a driver it's very frustrating when you know when you start the race that you need only to decide what lap you stop.

"Fernando is a bit like Messi. He's still the best. Imagine if Messi had no club to go to?

"Unfortunately in F1 there's only one or two teams winning races. In my time at least we had three or four teams.

"Fernando was in my team, we made a difference with him, we won the championship. We don't need to forget with Renault we won the championship because of the difference Fernando made."

For more with Briatore, including his thoughts on Alonso's Indy 500 campaign, check out the latest issue of GP Gazette: https://www.motorsport.com/magazines/gp-gazette-issue-12-–-austria-2017-gp-gazette-2017/