Good and bad news for Alonso

There appears to be good and bad news this week in the world of Fernando Alonso.

The good news, according to the Spanish gossip magazine Diez Minutos, is that the McLaren-Honda driver is engaged to his girlfriend Lara Alvarez, a TV presenter.

Alvarez, 29, may also be pregnant, with their wedding reportedly to take place in Dubai or the Maldives by the end of the year.

El Pais newspaper declared: "We contacted the representative of the F1 driver, who said he knows nothing about the matter."

As for the bad news, there are reports in the specialist Spanish sports press that not all is well with Honda’s preparations for the 2016 season.

Earlier, Marca newspaper claimed that while the Japanese carmaker’s 2016 engine is more powerful than its woeful predecessor, the new and larger turbo unit has proved unreliable on the test benches.

Now, a Marca headline declares that Honda could take "the engine from 2015" to the first of just two pre-season tests in Barcelona from early next week.