Autoblog

With both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa contracted with Ferrari through next year, reports are circulating that the Scuderia may bring on board both Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica for 2010.

After Kimi and Felipe, and with Lewis Hamilton firmly in place at McLaren, the pairing of Alonso and Kubica in Maranello would provide a formidable team against the rest of the field. Alonso, of course, is a two-time world champion and one of the only drivers to repeatedly beat Schumacher to the title, while Kubica has proven himself a competent driver of the highest degree. Whether the reports are accurate, and whether Ferrari would just dump Kimi and Felipe like that remains to be seen.

[Source: Tuttosport via Axis of Oversteer, Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty]

They say a rumor repeated often enough will become true. If that's the case, then one of Ferrari's drivers had better start updating his CV, because the rumor-mill's a churnin' again over Fernando Alonso's speculated move to the Scuderia. The report was flying around Monte Carlo, where the F1 circus made its most recent stop. But while previous reports placed the two-time world champion in the red racing suit for 2009, the latest reports push that off a year until 2010.

Alonso, of course, beat out Ferrari's mega-star Michael Schumacher two years in a row to win the world title before leaving Renault for McLaren. That arrangement most famously didn't work out, resulting in Alonso's release from his contract and his subsequent return to Renault. The contract was said to be for two years with an out clause after one, but the French team has failed to perform this year and Alonso has scored a paltry nine points six races now into the season. He's been angling for a Ferrari drive and the Scuderia has been rumored to take a liking to the accomplished Spaniard.

However, the renewed reports raise several questions. Most pressing is which of Ferrari's current drivers would be given the oust to make room for Alonso? Kimi Raikkonen scored the title for the team, but this year Felipe Massa is following very shortly behind the defending champ. Second to that comes the issue of sportsmanship and teamwork, both of which are highly prized in Maranello and severely lacking in Alonso's demonstrated character. But while these and other issues seem prohibitive, we wouldn't be all that surprised to see how quickly they can be dismissed in pursuit of a dominating championship.

[Source: GrandPrix.com, Photo by Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty]

UPDATE: Official press release from Renault confirming Alonso's return can be read after the jump.

Emerging reports confirm that Fernando Alonso has signed a two-year contract with the Renault F1 Team, with which he won a pair of world titles before defecting to a tumultuous and disappointing year with McLaren.

The contract, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo, will make Alonso one of the top-paid drivers currently in F1 at a staggering $50 million per season (According to the Wikipedia, Kimi Räikkönen makes $51 million/year). The deal is also reported to include minimal obligations towards Renault's sponsors, an exit clause should Alonso wish to terminate early, and clear, defined #1 status for Alonso over his team-mate.

That role, according to the reports, is set to be taken up by Nelson Piquet, Jr., who will be filling the #2 spot at Renault. The news subsequently leaves current drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen without confirmed rides for next season, fuelling speculation that Kovalainen could take up Alonso's now-vacant seat at McLaren, especially since news broke of Nico Rosberg's renewal at Williams.

The official announcement from Renault is anticipated shortly, and Alonso is expected to begin testing next year's Renault car at his native Spain's Valencia test track late in January.

[Source: F1-Live.com]

Fernando Alonso, recently let go from the telenovela known as the McLaren F1 Team, is in a bit of a quandary. He's looking for a team that can keep him at the top of the standings, but he only wants to sign a contract for a year. That's because the teams he really wants to join, Ferrari or BMW-Sauber, can't even think of making a move until the end of 2008 (and in Ferrari's case, really until the end of 2009). However, the only teams he's got a chance of signing with -- Renault, Red Bull, or Toyota -- have unresolved situations, aren't winners, and won't accept the one-year contract stipulation.

Enter McLaren, which still has a cockpit open, but no one worthy to fill it. The driver the team really wants, Nico Rosberg, would require the jaws of life to be pried out of his Williams contract. The only pilots left are unknowns or as yet unproven. But the driver market will open up in a year... so if they could just find a proven winner who only wanted a one-year contract... then maybe... just maybe....

And that's how Spanish newspaper Diario As has come to report that Alonso's camp is in talks with Ron Dennis and McLaren about going back to the team. Alonso's people have, incredibly, engaged in the dialog, but have passed McLaren a list of conditions such as allowing Alonso to decide his race strategy. Nobody believes the reunion is actually going to happen, although more outlandish things have occurred in F1. Be that as it may, the fact that it's gotten this far is what puts the silly in silly season.

[Source: F1-Live]

The motorsport press is reporting that Fernando Alonso will announce sometime today whose car he will be driving next season. The two-time world champion was recently released from his contract with McLaren-Mercedes, with whom he had a very tumultuous last season. Rumors have been circulating the paddock as to where he'd be heading as a newly free agent, but Flavio Briatore, his former boss at Renault, has made no secret of the door he's left open and the light he's left on for Alonso to come back home.

Briatore's plans, however, could be stalled by an unexpected intervention from his boss, Carlos Ghosn. Although the Renault-Nissan CEO rarely appears to stick his nose into the day-to-day running of the racing team, sources quote him as saying Renault would not give Alonso a one-year ride. The champion has stated that he'd only sign with Renault for a single season, fueling speculation that he could be headed to Ferrari in 2009, despite Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa doing a great job for the Scuderia and being under contract through 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Briatore is reportedly eager to accept Alonso's terms, but according to Ghosn, "It's three years or nothing." Stay tuned for more news.

[Source: F1-Live.com]

It's official: Fernando Alonso won't be driving next year for McLaren. The double world champion just completed a tumultuous first season out of his contracted three years with the British team, but it was clear for all to see that the driver wasn't happy, and the team wasn't happy with its new driver. As was widely speculated, the unhappy couple has split faster than a Hollywood divorce, which may be the fastest performance McLaren and Alonso have pulled off all season long. Because the feelings were mutual, Alonso won't have to pay the team anything to be released from his contract.

Follow the jump for more analysis and the press release from McLaren, including quotes from Alonso and team principal Ron Dennis.

With the 2007 season of Formula One racing now neatly tied up, the last few remaining seats for next year are filling up fast.

Following Mercedes' release of Fernando Alonso from his contract with McLaren and his earlier reported letter of intent with Renault where he won his two world titles, Alonso looks all but completely assured to be leaving McLaren a season early. That leaves McLaren with an open seat, and few available drivers to fill it.

The question no one seems to be asking is who will fill Alonso's seat at the British team next year. Never shying away from the difficult questions, Autoblog looks at the different options available for McLaren for 2008. Follow the jump to read more.

[Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty]

'You don't want us, and we don't want you.' That seems to be the consensus at Mercedes-Benz regarding Fernando Alonso, who has openly stated his displeasure over the course of the season with McLaren, the F1 team principally owned and powered by Mercedes.

According to emerging reports, the majority of the German automaker's executive board voted that Alonso is no longer a suitable representative of their company, and that his services should not be retained for an additional season. This despite the contract that binds the Spanish driver to the British team through 2008, but if neither party has any desire to uphold the conditions, the contract is rendered rather meaningless.

Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug has also dismissed the speculation that they could prevent Alonso from going to a competing team next season by forcing him into a sabbatical until the contract has run out, saying, "That's not our style." Guess that means the one hurdle between the two-time world champion and a return to happier days at Renault, where he won said titles, has just been conveniently removed.

[Source: F1i.com]

Current F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has been stripped of his pole position at today's Hungarian Grand Prix after blatently holding up the FIA's favorite rookie, and reported second coming of Christ, Lewis Hamilton in the pits during qualifying yesterday, in a move reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's "on-street parking" at Monaco in 2005.

The tactic visibly incensed team boss Ron Dennis, who is clean to polish McLaren's tarnished image following Ferrari's allegations of cheating, but could be good news for engine supplier and sponsor Mercedes who has been making the most of Hamilton and Alonsos' intense rivalry.

[Source: Autosport]

As far as rivalries go in Formula One, the competition between two drivers in the same team is far more intense than that between rival squads. Few have articulated that point quite as vividly as Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, the two star drivers at McLaren-Mercedes. One's a returning back-to-back world champion, and the other a wet-behind-the-ears rookie if there ever was one. But yesterday's race notwithstanding, the rookie's been acing the champion in classic style. As anyone who's been following this post-Schumacher season can tell you, it's been pretty intense.

Leave it to the Germans to lighten things up a bit. (Yeah, the Germans.) Mercedes, who, don't forget, through its Ilmor subsidiary, supplies the engines for Lewis' and Fernando's cars, put together this commercial. The video after the jump reminds us of two things: (a) a scene from that *ahem* "classic film" Days of Thunder, and (b) just how childish men can get... especially when it comes to fast cars.

[Source: Motor Authority]