No doubt Alonso is or rather has been one of the top drivers in F1 for some time and it could be said that he may be in 2011. I have the feeling at his age though, that we may have or will have seen the best of Alonso by then and at best we could expect to see 1, maybe 2 championship seasons with Ferrari, in and after 2011, if he were to go to Ferrari.

Some may know that I am a fan of the red cars and as of 2008 I am also a fan of Vettel. Having set my blinkers down, I still feel it would be a shame if Vettel doesn’t get a drive in a top tier car in the very near future. The things he achieved in 08 with what he had, coupled with his age, must hold some appeal to a team searching for raw talent and longevity. Much like McLaren have done with Hamilton. Wouldn’t it be great to see the German vs British rivalry return?

We saw when he had Hamilton as a team mate that he quite clearly wasn’t better than him. Had it not been for the mistakes at the end of that season Hamilton would have averaged a point a race more than him. As it was Alonso’s face was saved by finishing equal with a rookie.

The Alonso fans at the end of 2007 suggested that Hamilton would struggle in 2008 because Ferando was doing all the set up work and Hamilton was simply copying it. What happened? Despite the best efforts of the FIA Hamilton won the championship in his second season and first as team leader. The people who suggested that the set ups were copied presumably know so little about the sport that they though Alonso’s understeering car and Hamilton’s oversteering car had the same set up.

I also disagree that Alonso is consistent every race. When he is on it he is great from the first lap to the last but there were races even when Fisichella was his team mate where he looked second best and that was not because Fisichella for two weekends a season suddenly had world champion potential.

Alonso cracked when Hamilton started messing with his head in Hungary. If a rookie can do that to him by not letting him overtake in a qualifying session what is going to happen when the whole of Italy is on his case if things are not going well?

By 2011 Hamilton will be going into his fifth year in F1. If Alonso couldn’t deal with him when he was a rookie what is going to happen when he has 4 years experience? Ferrari and McLaren with equal cars would give a big advantage to McLaren because of the drivers.

Raikkonen has a contract for 2010. If he were to win a championship this year or look like winning one in 2010 are Ferrari going to risk de-stabilising things by signing Alonso? Also Alonso has presumably learned from the McLaren experience not to sign too early and to be absolutely certain what he is getting into.

We have heard the Alonso to Ferrari rumours for several seasons now and no doubt we will keep hearing them until he signs or retires. We were hearing ‘from good sources’ that he was definitely going to Ferrari when he had signed for McLaren. The stories are bull and are published mainly by Diario AS. These are the people lets remember who a few months ago were suggesting that Alonso and Raikkonen were going to swap drives just before Kimi signed on at Ferrari for another year. The morons at that rag thought it was possible that Kimi would choose to leave Ferrari to go to Renault. They are blind Alonso fans and have no sense of reality.

For me it has been obvious since the early part of 2007 that Lewis Hamilton is clearly the best driver o the grid and I am not the only person with that view. Remember Frank Williams’s comment. When Schumacher retired we thought we are all in with a chance and then along comes another superhuman. And he wasn’t talking about Alonso.

Stephano is not that guy… and he is Ferrari born and bred….

Sorry but they are not at all well suited… and that pairing would not make for a team of happy campers… and we know what happens when Fernando is not ‘appy…

the problem that Red Bull and Toyota have is that both their drivers are recognized number twos lol

Ha Ha Ha !
Quality mate, if a little harsh on Mark Webber (maybe).

As far as I see it it was Alonso’s job to go out there and bring home the results, Hamilton’s job was the same. The only time Hamilton should have stopped racing Alonso is if Hamilton could no longer win the Championship & Alonso could. That never happened, the fact that Kimi ended up beating them is irrelevant, while they both had the opportunity to win they should both be allowed to try.
By your logic Massa should have conceded to Kimi this season & let him go for the Championship as Kimi was the reigning Champion, this would have been madness as Massa was always in the fight and the fact that he ultimately lost out to Lewis doesn’t change anything.

Don’t get me wrong mate, I love Schumi and I’ve yet to find a new “favourite” to replace him since he retired. I also loved watching him annihilate the competition, the way he drove those Ferraris was amazing to see.

I still stand by the fact that I’ve enjoyed watching the last season more than many others in the last 10-15 years, the fight for the lead & the Championship is the most important fight on the track.

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one though, after all it’s a matter of preference. You’d like to see Alonso in a Ferrari & I don’t, I doubt we’ll ever change each others minds (especially if you’re as stubborn as me).

I was (am?) actually a Schumi fan as opposed to a Ferrari fan and let me tell you there was nothing I enjoyed more than watching the greatest F1 driver making history. It wasn’t boring for me it was a privilege to be able to witness such a master in his life time. Besides you can have a good race without having a change of leader, there are 20 or so other cars out there you just need a good production team to make the most of it.

Ron & Lewis’s relationship may be a very close one due to their history together but as far as I could see both drivers were given an equal opportunity to win that season.

Your analysis of the Schumi-Ferrari relationship is spot on K but Ferrari are no longer that team that are plodding along in the midfield, they are arguably the most dominant team in the sport today and along with McLaren are the joint favourite to win for the next few seasons.
They no longer need a dominant driver who gets all of the support, they should be giving both drivers a chance to compete until such time that one can no longer win the championship.

As a Ferrari fan the last season was one that I enjoyed a lot more than a few of the ones Schumi dominated. For a lot of races we had two cars fighting for the win and until the last couple of races they were left to fight it out amongst themselves (and Lewis).
I’d rather see two good drivers racing each other within the team than one being handed all of the wins.

I don’t want to sound like some sort of idealist but I watch F1 to see exciting racing and while I do want Ferrari to win everything I don’t want it at the expense of the racing.

The Schumacher years were a great time for many Ferrari fans as we finally got the success we’d wanted after a lifetime of waiting (literally, I was born in 1979) but I’d hate to go back to processional & predictable racing that we got so often at that time.

Alonso at Ferrari and Hamilton at McLaren… roll on 2011 I say!

No offence mate

Non taken.

but the guy folded like a Blackpool deckchair at McLaren. His mental strength, or lack of it, is one of the main reasons I wouldn’t want him at Ferrari. He sulked when he realised Lewis was a fast driver & threatened the team to try to get himself the number 1 status he so clearly needs.

That’s not quite my reading of the situation. Ron bought Fernando to McLaren to win the championship. If he had said to Alonso that he was gonna come to play second fiddle to a rookie do you think Alonso would have gone? No. Ron folded when he didn’t have the balls to tell his second love child to move over and let the man he brought to McLaren to win the championship win. That’s why they lost the championship. Of course Alonso was ****** because he new he could have won it. He had been misled and that’s why he tried to hold the team to ransom. You have to be a bit of a nutter to do that and believe me it takes mental strength to stand up to powerful people and big organizations.

At Ferrari I would hope that they give Alonso the respect he deserves. Like Schumacher he can bring something to the team beyond just driving. Michael Schumacher never asked for number 1 status he demanded it. Do you think he as a two time world champion would have gone to crappy old Ferrari who had barely won a race for 25 years, drag his friends and some of the most talented people in F1 with him to try and restore the prancing horse just so some other bugger could win the first championship for Ferrari in 30 years? No. That’s why he demanded number 1 status because no-one else could do what he did. And let’s not kid ourselves and believe that Michael Schumacher made up team orders because Hakkinnen benefited similarly from number one status as did many others before. It’s part of what used to make F1 a team sport and secretly it still does.

Dose Fernando want to go to Ferrari? Absolutley! For as good as he is, he’s got the biggest ego on the grid today, and since he worked his way out of one of the the top two teams, it’s only a matter of time before he tries to get into the other top team- perhaps in order to get back at McLaren as much as anything else.

The big question will be if Ferrari wants him powering the team in the future- to me, it’s either Fernando or Vettel that Ferrari want. Fred brings two world titles and a legion of followers, but Vettel is the one whom I feel they want more, and the’ll only take Alonso if it dosen;t interfear with them snagging Vettel in the future.

I think he may go to Ferrari in 2011 or 10, but I think he’s far too astute to sign a contract now that is that far in the future.

I seriously believed that Alonso was going to go to Honda. I think he probably thought long and hard about it. Renault maybe only managed to secure his services with their late resurgence and the fact he will have clear No. 1 status (would that have happened with Button?). The fact he is rumoured to be paid $46 mill. will have helped too, but who knows what he would have been paid if he went to Honda. And what a court case that would be now.

None of these drivers want to get tied up in legal contracts that are both messy and costly, and least of all with Ferrari. I think he’s been flirting with Ferrari, as they have with him, and probably like he’s had to for the last couple of years following his McLaren debacle, in order to get a seat.
But I don’t think that he’s signed yet. He’s far to shrewd.

BTW. does this journalist work for the same newspaper that gave us the ’scoop’ about Honda’s reprise?

And don’t worry about the pit crew – pretty soon it’ll be impossible to leave the pits with the hose still attached…

Autosport have suggested on a couple of occasions that Raikkonen’s contract renewal this year was automatic because he’d achieved certain objectives in his contract based on number of points scored or something. But Ferrari don’t pay him an eight-figure sum to achieve his contractual minimum.

But choosing which – if any – sources to believe on this kind of thing is very tricky. A few months ago Alan Henry was convinced Alonso was off to Honda.

*I’m not a Tifosi, just curious to see what he could do.