Glory be! The best pilot will soon be driving the best car. I am so excited I cant even spell Fernando's family name! Banco de Santander, the world's fifth largest bank, will AT LAST cancel its McLaren sponsorship. Emilio Botin, the bank's president, is rightly and royally pissed off at the shameful treatment of Fernando at the hands of Ron, Lewis, and his Daaaaaady. Banco de Santander is cancelling its 15 million Euro sponsorship of McLaren, and will be paying 25 million Euro as of next year to..... Ferrari! YES!!!!!!! Guess what Banco de Santander's color is ? RED! RED! RED! Oh my God, this is the best news one could imagine. Money talks.! Forza Ferrari! Forza Alonso! Viva Luca de Montezzemolo! Viva Emilio Botín! Chew on that one, all of you Alonso haters. One of you in particular! (hint: his name on this board is a number). Good news for Ferrai! Yall can rejoice! Cheers!!!!!! Julio
we already knew Santander will be a Ferrari sponsor starting 09, but the question is...how does that play into Alonso drive? we will find out soon enough i imagine. Here's the gig... Kimi wins the title again this year, retires early, and Alonso joins the squad...hmm...
http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/165992-0/f1_sponsor_switch_to_take_alonso_to_ferrari?.html I found this on Google news. Interesting speculation.
I hope so. But more importantly having Alonso at Ferrari is fantastic news. I won't believe it until I see him test the scarlett cars, but the story definitely is encouraging. Alonso/Vettel in the 2010 Ferrari, what a dream come true!
Alonso and Vettel? No way. Massa may be unpredictable at times, but when he is on he is a great driver. Vettel has shown time and time again that he can not control the Formula 1 car. Having Alonso will make things more complicated. If he doesn't get his way is he going to go crying to another team and leave? He left Maclaren because he was being showed up by a younger rookie driver. Alonso has shown that his ego has more control over him than he has of it. I think Alonso coming to Ferrari is a bad move, but hey what do I know, it isn't my team to make those decisions.
Don't get your hopes up Ferrari have been rather unimpressed with Alonso this year. I'm pretty sure they don't want the prima donna headaches as well.
Between now and 2010 is a long way off. Who knows if this is true. Bild.....just has cute women on it, thats all you can count on. Luca has said no Kimi/Alonso pairing, doesnt want the headache. Kubica and Kimi makes more sense. Vettel.....makes a nice test driver. Red Bull owns him and he will replace DC. Kubica is free and makes a nice replacement for Massa if he is let go.
Raikkonen: I won't quit F1 Eurosport - Thu, 10 Jul 21:23:00 2008 World champion Kimi Raikkonen has dismissed speculation that he will quit Ferrari and retire from Formula One in 2009. Speculation has raged that the Finn was disillusioned with the sport and would walk out on his contract, with Fernando Alonso taking his place at Ferrari. But Raikkonen, who jointly leads the points standings with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, told Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport that such talk fell wide of the mark. "I have not broken a contract in all my life, and I have no intention of doing so now. In 2009 I will be driving for Ferrari," he said. Despite McLaren driver Hamilton's crushing victory at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, Raikkonen said he was not worried about Ferrari's relative lack of pace. "I'm reasonably satisfied. The speed isn't lacking, but sometimes we haven't managed to put together all the elements and have not succeeded in exploiting all the potential at our disposal," he said. "We haven't lost any speed; we just need a good, clean weekend." Eurosport
Considering how well Piquet Jr. is doing, I say the problem is not with Alonso but Renault. I may not be crazy about Alonso's antics off track, but the reality is that he is a darn good driver and is one of the top 3 in the field right now.
So basically all this excitement is because a sponsor changed from McLaren to Ferrari which we already knew about...waste of thread IMO.
Lol no kidding. If Santander is going with Ferrari then Alonso to the team is a done deal. It's just a matter of when. Why would they be going to Ferrari otherwise? They could have just followed Alonso to Renault then.
First of all, I want to congratulate the author of this post for his mature approach to the subject. Second: link? And I mean: not a link to any kind of "speculation".
If Alonso keeps driving like he has been he wont ever be at Ferrari. Btw this was the best part of the thread imo... Image Unavailable, Please Login
interesting to note that, just because Massa had a terrible race last weekend, they're already saying he's gonna get replaced? what nonsense. BTWS, is this sponsor thing really confirmed? i thought Marlboro has the right to have it's bar codes on the rear wings of the cars till 2012. suddenly this Spanish sponsor wants to take Fred to Ferrari and have their logos on the rear wing?
As an aside, I really like the onboard Ferrari shots. In the front facing view the nose is completely devoid of sponsor decals. Red only. I like that
Can't stop the thishful winking. I miss Giles and Rene. Lately, it seems that people have come to believe that you have to be a jerk to be a champion. I'd have thought Kimi would have disproved that, but you guys have him already retired.