wanna911

You honestly think Ferrari would sign Vettel without confirmation that Alonso was leaving after the year Vettel has had this year, just plain being out driven? In that case, no way Alonso leaves without a confirmed seat somewhere else unless he wants a year off. He's not stupid. If he's leaving, he knows where he wants to go (and is going).

Astroman

+1

JCP911S

Alonso might just take a year off.

He doesn't need the money, and after the crap he's had to put put with this year, driving a hopelessly mediocre car under a lot of political pressure, he's got to feel a bit disgusted.

There are only 4 good rides. If he doesn't think he has a shot at another championship, he just might park himself on a nice yacht somewhere, make a few mil doing endorsements and wait for the offers to roll in.

HiWind

Tangentially he didn't get his Tour de France/cycle team go ahead either
Not going his way right now

Ritter v4.0

Wait- yer not suggesting that Ferrari, Alonso, Vettel et al are more in the know that your fellow RLers? I didn't think so.

multi21

At this point, even Larry Herman can drive the Mercedes F1 car and win a WDC The car is THAT much better than anything out there.

At his age, it's career suicide if Alonso takes a year off. The cars will be different, he'll be older and there is no guarantee he's going to be in a good car a year from now. It didn't exactly go great for Michael and Kimi when they took time off

If we revisit 2006 when Schumacher was taking too long to make a decision, Luca di Montezemolo went out and signed Kimi basically forcing MS out. My thought is that Alonso threatened to leave and Ferrari went out and signed Vettel to cover their backside because Kimi, at least right now, is a bit lost as compared to his teammate and is no longer a #1.

Of course, if they go to 3 car teams next year, it'd be hard to argue with a line up of Alonso, Vettel and Kimi on the same team.

Carrera51

No way Alonso doesn't have a ride at a top team next year. Are they going to allow 3 car teams? I'd like to see that instead of the 2 or 3 teams at the back that don't have the budgets to build a topflight car and sign a top tier driver.

multi21

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...-double-points

Larry Herman

Ha! I didn't get the call though. Maybe next year if they are looking for a 60 year old drover.

Flying Finn

Alonso is out of Ferrari, not because he wants so but because Mattiacci told him to leave after hearing all the demands he has.
Ferrari is Ferrari and above all drivers as it has always been and Mattiacci is proving it.
They (or Santander) could of course buy Kimi out if they wanted, they already did it before.
And I wouldn't diss Kimi so much, only twice has the car been the way he wanted and he's been on par with Alonso then, and that's with a car that is 6 kg (about 0.3-0.4 seconds per lap) heavier than Alonso's.

Anyway, back to the point, even with the history of Alonso & McLaren, I don't see Honda passing on the opportunity of hiring Alonso since he is available. He is just too good of an opportunity to pass, both driving vise and as a name.

But if he does end up sitting out a season, I don't think it's a bad thing, might be a good thing to sit out and come back even hungrier.

wanna911

Every bit of that sounds extremely far fetched at best.

rs4_saloon

After the Sochi race, he confirmed he has a ride and it will be revealed soon. He also confirmed it's not merc powered.

rockitman

It's got be be Mclaren/Honda regardless how Ron Dennis feels. Honda will call the shots, not him with regard to the driver selections.

enduro911

Damn, I was hoping for a Bernhard, Webber, Alonso Porsche P1 effort.

rs4_saloon, by any chance do you have a link to your intel? Just thinking out loud for a minute, if I'm Alonso, why would I move to a team that has an untested power plant and is struggling to get funding from a single major sponsor? To me going to Mclaren seems incredibly risky unless that motor is dyno'ing off the chart, Ross Brawn is coming back to Mclaren, or some other F1 act of God. If the engine isn't Mercedes-powered, that means that he's going to enjoy good food and most likely a mediocre car at Ferrari while they rebuild, take the aforementioned risks at Mclaren, kick Kvyat or Ricciardo out at Red Bull, or do something even more insane and rejoin Renault in the hopes of leading them out of the dumpsterfire in which they currently sit. This is of course assuming there will not be any three-car teams next year and that Adrian Newey is sick of energy drinks and is craving tomato sauce.

perfectlap

Ferrari is a sinking ship. We've seen them go to pieces before. Nearly 30 years without a title.
Their salvation was an entire management shift that installed proven winners in 1996. Maybe the Ferrari new boss knows how much work is ahead of them and how much $$$$ it's going take and doesn't want the pressure of having one of the two best drivers in F1 let down by his machinery year after year. That will just make the new boss look incompetent. Better to bring in a top 5-10 driver instead and call it the next "rebuilding phase".

Either way, Alonso would be better off to stay away from Ferrari with what is left of his best years.
If he can handle the massive pay cut he can take Massa's seat (ouch), Button's or maybe Santander can throw a bunch of money at Redbull to make the Russian kid go away. As far as contracts for all the aforementioned, all contracts can be broken or re-negotiated. The last thing any F1 driver wants to do, unless his name is Heidfeld, is lawyer up against an F1 team, his days will be numbered after that.
If a team can afford Alonso, they will hire Alonso. If they can't then ALonso has to accept a pay cut or deal with the stress of waiting yet another year to win WDC #3.
At this point I think he'll bend, he's got more than enough dough already. Senna once said he'd drive the Renault Williams for free. And sponsorship-wise, taking a big pay cut and winning a third title might be smart.