Eurosport - Mon, 29 Dec 16:46:00 2008
Fernando Alonso has a secret agreement to join Ferrari for four years from 2011, according to Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The twice Formula One world champion has never hidden his desire to go to the Italian team and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo recently fuelled the ongoing speculation by refusing to rule out the Spaniard's future arrival.
The newspaper said the deal had several get-out clauses for both sides but added that Alonso could join Ferrari even earlier, in 2010, if 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen follows this year's disappointing season with another bad campaign.
By contrast, Alonso was in impressive form after returning to Renault following a difficult season at McLaren, despite not having a car competitive enough to challenge for the title.
The 27-year-old won two races, in Singapore and Japan, and finished fifth in the standings for Renault, with whom he won the 2005 and 2006 world championships.
Ferrari have Raikkonen and this year's title runner-up Felipe Massa under contract until the end of 2010, while Alonso's current deal with Renault also runs for two more seasons.
A Ferrari spokesman would not comment on the reports, apart from saying: "We can only repeat that we have two drivers signed to the end of 2010".
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4 years champ Alonso 2011 onwards
no doubts with proposed changes
I likie the Idea of Alonso as Ferrari Champion, becouse after Shumi was gone is nathing there, and Alonso hasdemostrate that he can be so good as Shumi, with the best car in F-1 for decades, (FERRARI). I hopethat will be a reality.
Let’s meet La Gazzeta. This is Wikipedia’s description, besides the pink (yes, pink) paper it’s printed on:
"Although a wide range of sports are covered in the newspaper, football is given by far the majority of the coverage. With some 24-28 pages out of 40 devoted to the sport on a daily basis, much of the journalism is speculative and sensationalist rather than the pure reporting of matches"
Do you still believe this news are for real?
Since when are secret agreements known by just about everybody? Looks like this Italian sports journalists have nothing to do but writing science fiction. Ferrari has said no to Alonso at least twice. Once when he left Minardi and had to go as a test pilot to Renault, and again last season. Now they have Kimi and Massa for the next 2 years. So, there are not Alonsos in their way. Sometimes when there are no news, you have to invent them.
Well Mike it should be easy to find out who this fake mouron is:
a) Recently escaped from a mental institution, and
b) Such a coward that even online he has to pose as someone else.
What you mean there's one that isn't?
MikeQ this is not the Mouron, this is someone impersonating the brain-dead one.
So mouron Bill Mac & I are 3 months behind ? Behind what exactly.
Irrespective of his point of view, Bills comments are lucid, rational and contain substance. Yours on the other hand are vague, incoherent and insulting. Who do you think people are listening to ?
CATALIN, mikeq, doesn't make sense any time . what planet does this guy thinks he is on, he is three months behind.
BILL MAC, once again you are three months behind what is allready signed, what a idiot you are, dont say what the media tell you to say , say what you think , dont quote rubbish.
aperos I like your comments about Colin Chapman he truly was a great designer and as you say his only yardstick was to make the new car go faster than the old car - simple really.
Good point Forza, can you imagine the affect this will have on Kimi and Filipe? Unless of course one of these two drivers has made a decision about his future and it's not at Ferrari.
What we need to know about the Santander deal is how much it is worth to Ferrari because if it's enough and Santander want Alonso to drive next year for Ferrari then that is what will happen.
Oh no!!! Not again!!
I really have mixed feelings about Alonso possibly joining Ferrari. There's no denying that he probably is the most "complete" driver in F1, but he comes with a lot of baggage. Personally, I would rather see Ferrari go after Vettel or Hamilton. Before you crucify me for mentioning Lewis, and regardless of what he said, if McLaren stops producing a winning car, Lewis will be looking for another team. These guys want to win. However, I don't really expect that to happen.
In any case, Ferrari would do well to focus on their current drivers. One is a former world champion and the other missed the title by 1 point. I fully expect Kimi to come back strong this year and give Lewis a good fight for the title.
patriciajones46, SPOT ON COMMENT
BY BY MASSA
aperos marnio from peru knows about as much as a dead rat about anything in life!!
Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicalli has stated recently that Schumachers "contract" at Ferrari is under revision!!!! Ferrari have decided in the credit crunch to re-assess all their outgoing payments due to "financial concerns in this uncertain future, and all contracts have to be reviewed to see what they bring to the team"....(not quite verbatim, but close enough from how i read it!)...Schumacher was a major stumbling block for di Montezemolo when it came to signing Alonso over Raikkonen, but with Schumacher and Todt both wanting Raikkonen, di Montezemolo found himself between a rock and a hard place when Alonso said he was going to Mclaren in December 2005!!! read all the books :)
marnio from peru...........you are a nice person, but you dont really know much about cars and racing do you? :) Colin Chapman, look him up on Wikipedia, only made cars to go faster than his last one!!! He is like the Godfather of Formula 1, so find out more about him.......he was nice man and i think i hear he was very friendly......:) he was a great innovative designer of F1 cars, and everyone who remembers the great Ayrton in a 98T will tell you that too! :)
Isn't it great without the nutter copying and pasting the same old @#$% everyday? Looks like Yahoo has banned him and his MANY different alias's. Unfortunatley, he'll be back (unless he's been thrown in the loony assylum).
Apart from a certain @#$% from Peru (which I doubt), we can enjoy a sensible F1 debate while it lasts.
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