Gazzetta claims Alonso-Ferrari deal done
Fernando Alonso has an agreement to switch to Ferrari in 2011, Italy’s authoritative La Gazzetta dello Sport reports.
The Spanish former double world champion, who is often linked with the famous Maranello based team, could even switch to Ferrari in 2010 as an early replacement for Kimi Raikkonen, who performed disappointingly last season, the newspaper claimed.
Gazzetta said the agreement with 27-year-old Alonso is quite open, with numerous two-sided exit clauses, but that if fully exercised could see the driver race at Ferrari until the end of 2014.
A Ferrari spokesman said only: “We can only repeat that we have two drivers signed to the end of 2010.”
Alonso’s current Renault contract also runs for two more years.
This is a news story from the GMM agency. Looking to trim down your F1 Fanatic feed so you don’t receive news? There’s now a feed that does just that - get the link here.
Read more: Alonso - Ferrari rumours return
The article for Gazzetta was by Pino Allevi, who’s a highly regarded source. The 2011 season is a long way off, but Alonso does play the long game with his contract negotiations: he signed his 2007 McLaren deal after winning his first title for Renault in 2005. This is still all speculation, but it’s hard to resist pairing the best F1 team with the most successful active F1 driver.
The BEST team? That’s a highly contentious point Keith! The most prestigious, certainly - but many would argue that other teams are on par.
and the BEST current driver may i add Keith!
as many have already said, had /Alonso been in a Ferrari in 08, he would have won the title by a mile!!!! 
I have to disagree, I do feel Mclaren are the best team and with drivers like Hamilton, Kubica and the up coming Vettel also competing, Alonso will have a tough time. Even though he holds 2 world titles (from 3 and 4 years ago) the game has changed and I dont consider him to be the best driver at the moment, I hope he still can handle the cars like he did a few years ago so we can have a fantastic 2009 season
Good for Alonso. I’d really like to see the contract and indeed any of the top driver contracts in full… but I guess I’ve got more chance of getting water from a stone…
Would be interesting to see him paired with Massa. But what if Massa starts beating him? it should be interesting to watch
@4
It would.
Am I the only one to think this is ridiculous, on both sides, to be talking about contracts two full seasons ahead??
Besides, haven’t we heard countless times that the management at Ferrari didn’t like the drama that Alonso caused at McLaren in 2007 and don’t want the same thing happening to them??
But, this is interesting because we recently heard that Flav is only going to be in F1 two more years also. Perhaps Alonso & Flav both know something we don’t about the future of Renault??
As you can tell by my name, I’d be quite excited to see Alonso at ferrari. However, I’ve never been a fan of the “one man team” deal that dictates a number 2 driver. Let’s hope Massa stays onboard, or someone else coughbrunosennacough I’m glad we didn’t have that at ferrari this year. Mclaren’s another story clearly (bracing for flak….now…)
I would love to see Alonso in a Ferrari taking on Hamilton in the Mclaren. That’d be a title fight!
To be honest I’d prefer Vettel.
Alonso is a good driver but I’ve never wanted to see him in a Ferrari.
I dont think Alonso should go to Ferrari. Alonso and Uncle Flav know some things we dont. Mercedes has stated repeatedly that they are looking to buy a team if the price is right. When Uncle Flav retires, maybe the Renault team will end up being the Mercedes team with Alonso and everything.
If I were Alonso I would not go to Ferrari - I would investigate something more exciting ………
I’ve often wondered what’s the deal behind this thinking, i guess this might be a good place to ask why, what is it with ‘i don’t want to see FA in Ferrari’?
I’d love to see Alonso and Raikkonen together.
Vettel is still a rookie. Indeed like hamilton, but Hamilton is a few years older and he’s an amazingly mature driver. Vettel made a lot more mistakes than Hamilton. Maybe Vettel can go to Ferrari after Alonso rackes up 2 or 3 more titles.
James Allen is claiming this is for real in his latest blog entry.
It’s tempting to believe it but it’s a bit like all those rumours in the ’80s and ’90s about Ayrton Senna going to Ferrari. Of course, Ferrari today are much better than they were then.
Massa should pack his bags then. I hardly think Alonso would dominate in the 08 ferrari. In 07, he couldn’t beat Hamilton on pace. Kimi is straight up faster and his only problem was Ferrari building the car to suit Massa’s lack of driving skills.
“stright up faster”?? yeah..dream on mate.
And I dont think you were paying attention in 07 - that’s not quite how it happened.
It’s strange how few commentators make that point Nick. It was obvious the F2008 suited Massa a lot more than it did Raikkonen. Its understeer characteristics really did not suit Kimi and it showed. I’m eager to see which of them the F2009 will suit, I really wouldn’t write Kimi off yet.
sounds about right to me you diseased rat
How many deals does Alonso have now for Ferrari?
This is about the third or fourth one signed in 2008 alone.
Aren’t both Massa and Raikkonen under contract until the end of the 2010 season? If my memory serves me correctly and the rumours are true then that means Alonso could replace either one after that.
Alejandro
To be honest mate he just doesn’t excite me.
I think he’s a good driver and his results have proven this but I don’t think he’s great or special, he’s just one of several good drivers we have in F1 at the moment.
Some guys have something special that sets them apart from the rest. Senna had it, so did Prost, Mansell, Hakkinen & Schumacher and many more too over the years but Alonso just doesn’t do it for me.
What really puts me off having him in my team (I wish it was) is the way he acted at McLaren.
I’m not a McLaren or Hamilton fan and watched their season as an unbiased, outside observer and for me Alonso lost it.
He couldn’t take the pressure & ended up folding in full view of the world.
Lewis was a rookie and had plenty of good excuses not to win that season but Alonso was the experienced driver with World Championships under his belt and should have been able to deal with the politics within the team & also the pressure of driving against Lewis.
Better drivers would have thrived in that environment & would have come out of that season as both World Champion and a better driver, they wouldn’t have gone off crying to Flavio in an attempt to get back to the safety net of his former team.
If Alonso can’t handle the politics at McLaren then he’ll probably last about 5 minutes at Ferrari, unless we have a repeat of the Schumi years where he only gets journeymen team mates picking up the scraps.
His wage demands are also astronomical, I think Vettel would do an equal, if not better job of driving for Ferrari for a far smaller fee.
Ferrari is a special team to me, I know this is hard for some of you to understand especially after some of the things we’ve read recently about the unfair payments & treatment that they receive. But none the less, I have supported Ferrari for as long as I can remember, even when they were plodding along in the 80s & early 90s I still wanted them to win & never left them for another team. I have an emotional attachment to them & their cars and I always want the best & my favourite drivers to be driving for them.
I think Kimi is one of the most talented drivers in F1 at the moment & Massa is maturing into a very good driver too, I don’t think Alonso would do any better than either of them will do in the future and if one of them is going to leave at any point I’d like to see Vettel take the empty seat.
So that kind of sums up why I think Alonso is a good driver but I wouldn’t want him driving for Ferrari.
“His wage demands are also astronomical”
Alonso earns way less than Kimi, so this argument doesn’t particularly make sense.
Beneboy,
OK that makes sense, thanks for the explanation
You’re welcome mate, and a very Happy New Year to you and everyone else !
Hey same here
and everyone here also have a great new year, remember don’t drink and drive 