Fernando Alonso has ruled out racing with a Mercedes-powered car for the 2015 Formula 1 season, saying that his future is “obvious” even if he has not made his decision public yet.

The Spanish driver is set to leave Ferrari after five years to make way for Sebastian Vettel, and has been widely tipped to join McLaren next season as the British team rekindles its partnership with Honda, who will return to F1 as an engine supplier.

However, Alonso has been linked with nearly every possible opening on the grid, including Lotus which has confirmed it will be using Mercedes engines in 2015.

The power units produced by the German marque have been the best in Formula 1 this season, making them desirable for any driver chasing the world championship. However, Alonso said he does not think he’ll be racing with them in 2015 when asked by NBCSN’s Will Buxton about his future.

“I don’t think so,” Alonso replied when asked if he would be driving a Mercedes-powered car next year. “The options are quite clear.

“As I said in Suzuka, when you know the options, you will say ‘it was so obvious’. Wait and see.”

The options for Alonso appear to be either driving for McLaren or taking a sabbatical in 2015, but the speculation about his future is only set to continue until we get a definitive decision from the two-time world champion.

In Russia today, Alonso finished in sixth place and said it was not one of the most enjoyable races of his career.

“Yeah I think it was a difficult weekend for us,” he said. “Obviously we had the worry and the thoughts on Jules [Bianchi] all weekend, and today in the race we were not super competitive here.

“We did manage to make a good start, but we were not able to maintain that pace. It was not boring, but a race where there were not enough goals to fight for to be enjoyable.”

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