Alonso signs with McLaren for 2007!

I'm just wondering now, where the heck was Ferrari when all this was going on? Unless they have already signed Kimi then they are out to lunch and will be up shyte's creek driver wise, when MS retires, especially if he does suddenly. Either that or they'll just have to take who's left after the Kimi/JPM fight for the second seat.

 

Not to worry: They got Rossi...


Seriously, the more I think about this the more convinced I become that Kimi signed with the Scuderia a couple months ago.

Edit: If I'm wrong and Kimi hasn't signed, imagine the horror scenario for 2007: Kimi and Alonso at McLaren and JPM at Ferrari!
WHOA!

 

What evidence do you have to support this claim?

Please, don’t use the fact that Kimi had faster lap times! We all know the McLaren was the faster car this year. Remember, Alonso just like MS races with his head as much as his right foot. If you watched the last 2 races you’ll realize that Alonso is as fast as Kimi, and has the “balls” to race hard. That pass on MS in Japan around 130R was amazing.

Don’t confuse following team orders or conserving your engine/car with not being fast.

As you can tell I’m an Alonso fan. I like Kimi, in much the same way I like a stainless-steel toaster. It’s very functional and it’s “cold”, but it does what it was intended to do, toast bred. I view Kimi in the same way, he’s very functional, that’s about all you can say about him. Oh yah and he’s cold!

 

A toaster toasts bread. Kimi toasts Fred.


PS: Don't get upset, I'm still an Alonso fan. It ain't 2007 yet...

 

I'm a big JPM fan and I wouldn't like to see him leave McLaren with only 2 seasons there. I think he did well this past year. Hopefully, the FIA will allow a team to run 3 cars per team in 2007 JPM, KR, FA all driving for McLaren. That would be pretty awesome to see teammates battling all the time.

 

I guess this explains why FA was reluctant to cut his vacation short and start testing...

 

Maybe my personal bias I don't care for Alonso my gut tells me that he doesn't have the longevity of a MS or Mika. This season reminded me of Villenueve's championship season with Williams. JV was definitley ALL car, I do think Alonso is more talented than JV. Kimi just seems to have raw talent ad to be naturally quick in the same vein as MS. Remember before Ferrari got it together and MS was still competitive with McLaren. I don't think Alonso has the ability to extract the most from an average car at best.

The F2005 was no match for the Renault last season and much should not be taken from a FAR superior car passing.

I don't think Ferrari is asleep at the wheel. They HAVE to be in negotiations with Kimi. The combination of Ferrari and Kimi is visceral and gets my blood stirring. I did not like MS when I first started looking at F1 but I was forced to respect his talent as a driver. I don't feel the same with Alonso.


PS-

If you can't tell I don't like Alonso..

 

to me its clear that kimi will go to ferrari in 07.
dennis pulled off a great coup but he also ensured that he will nto win the wc in 06 or 07.
kimi will have been wooed by ferrari with the 'your number one on our team' if you sign speech, whereas dennis keeps throwing impediments in his way (jpm, losing newey, signing alonso).

i also heard as far back as a year ago that renault would be out by end 07 regardless of wc results, so this makes sense, especially since flav has to know whats coming.

so next year you will have a half enthused renault team, battling a half enthused mclaren team, vs a hot-to-trot schumi in his swansong year with nothing to lose by putting he pedal to the metal one more time, helped by tires, engine, and enthusiasm.....

 

Obviously, I meant 2006.

One thing is for sure: BMW won't win.

 

I am a complete noob at F1, but when I watched this season, Kimi just seemed to be much smoother that Alonso, less steering input, he made it look easy. On equal footing, I would put my money on Kimi.

But what a smart marketing deal for McLaren, as they get to reap the benefits for more than a year before anyone even has a chance to burst the world champion bubble.

 

I can't believe what I am reading here on the racing forum, so many of you are all ready to hand the title over to either FA or KR and the Winter F1 GP hasn't even started yet let along the actual 2006 season.

Keep in mind of the following, MS with a proper car can still compete and win the 2006 title. If anything at all, in 2006, any team has a reasonable chance of being on the podium and to win races or WC. With the major rule changes, mainly the V8 engine rule (And with that, major aerodynamic changes in the rear end of the car, among other major changes) and the tyre rule will level the playing field once again and allow any other team with proper backing to leapfrog over the others. MS was the last one to win a title in a V8 powered car, and Ford/Cosworth (Williams-Cosworth) was the last V8 engine supplier to win the title. Honda and Toyota has an amazing amount resources, data and experiences in building racing V8 engines, Newy is now with RB and they have the Ferrari engine and Ferrari, Renault & McLaren will be there simple because they are Ferrari, Renault and McLaren.

As so many of you tend to point out how the success McLaren and Renault had in 2005 should carry over to the 2006, I dare to ask you all to see how the F2004 was in 2004. F2004 was as invincible as a race car can come, and look at how the F2005 turned out. IMO, this "carry-over" thing only works in seasons that did not have major rule changes. The 2005 season had major changes as the changes to the qualifying format, the 2 race/engine rule and the most significant change of one set of tyres/race weekend. For 2006, everything is again, scrembled and this time, I believe they should work to Ferrari's favorite. What can I say, I am a Tifosi after all.

Ferrari and MS for both titles in 2006 !!!

 

I'm a huge Kimi fan and I would love to see him stay at McLaren. It would be nice to see him and Alonso become teammates in 2007. At least we will be able to find out properly who the faster driver is.

All the contracts of the main players at Ferrari expire at the end of 2006. I think there will be more uncertainty over at Ferrari than anywhere else. If I were Kimi, I would definitely stay put.

I think announcing FA's signing this early is Ron's way of trying to negotiate with Kimi. In the end I suspect Kimi will end up staying at Mclaren or moving to Ferrari. I don't see him going elsewhere...

 

I was surprised to read that FA was going to McLaren, since I thought (up until this morning) that he had a legitimate shot at repeating as champion in 2006. But now I doubt he will get the team support that he needs to repeat. If McLaren continues to have reliability problems, then I think Kimi may end up going to Renault. I just don't see him at Ferrari in 2007 unless Ferrari is very competitive next year. 2006 will be MS' last year, so, if Kimi doesn't go there, I wonder who will become Ferrari's number 1 driver.

 

IMO, it is more directly to playing head games with Flavio and Renault. There is nothing more deflating to a team than knowing for certain that your WC is all set to leave you at the end of the season before the current season even begin.

 

If Alonso and Kimi were on the same team........WOW.

 

Alonso has done the right thing in leaving. FA/KR or FA/JPM would be great to see. I wouldn't be surprise if both , KR and JPM leave McLaren. Turun Sanomat news says that Alonso signed a 3 year deal, with at least 20 million dollars per season.

Kimi to Ferrari? Much depends on whether Michael continues racing in 2007. Bryne is leaving, Todt and Brawn maybe. We haven't seen how Massa can do in a top team. I'm sure Toyota are looking at KR and Montoya.

Ferrari drivers in 2007...
To be honest, I really don't know. Anything can happen. I wish it's Schumacher / Raikkonen at Ferrari vs Alonso / Montoya at McLaren.

Renault in 2007?
Leave or not....50/50 I would say. Apparently BMW were interested having Kovalainen and BMW wanted a 2 year deal but Flavio was offering a 1 year deal. I'm sure Flavio knew FA was going and that Heikki will be a Renault driver.. Renault don't give big contracts (20 millions+) to their drivers. Now that FA won a WDC, it's time to cash in.

 

Turun Sanomat suggests KR is McLaren´s number one candidate for 2007. Ron has tried to make him sign, but according to the report KR will make his decision during the next season - and it will be based on how good the car is. He heard about FA "few days ago" and doesn´t see any problem teaming up with FA.

 

It may seem that way from the outside, but I don't think this is the case.

Some points to think about:
* Flavio is FA's manager and was obviously involved in the deal.
* Flavio has been thinking of retiring from F1 for a while now. He recently said that he would have quit for sure if they did not win this year.
* Flavio is the most "businessman" like team boss and driver manager than anyone in the pitlane. I'm sure he thinks Renault will not be a good place for FA after he steps down, hence the move to Mclaren (long term strategy). Ferrari has too many question marks after 2006.
* I don't think Renault will stay in F1 after the Concorde agreement expires.
* Mclaren's deal with Vodafone did not hurt either. I am sure Mclaren have more surprises in their pipeline (which is very attractive to FA and other potential sponsors).
* Also helps put Kimi and his management in place. I'm sure Ferrari is offering Kimi a HUGE paycheck, and having FA (a world champ) at Mclaren in 2007 gives Ron more leverage to negotiate with Kimi's people. It is no secret Ron has a soft spot for Kimi, and Ron signing FA is a way of telling Kimi that he's not going to give in to his financial demands just because he has a soft spot for him.

Ron's strategy of announcing FA's signing this early has several effects
* To resolve a deal with Kimi ASAP and to pay him lower than what he is asking for.
* Once the deal with KR and FA are done (early), this will attract MAJOR sponsors to the team and potentially take other sponsors away from other teams.

Mclaren's strategy is brilliant both in terms of racing and marketing.

In the end, I think Ron is not only playing mind games with Renault, but with all the teams in F1.

 

*IF* it really is true, that Kimi hasn't yet signed with Ferrari and your suggestion will come to life, where does that leave JPM and Ferrari?

Juan Taco driving for the Scuderia? OMG! The only salvation for Maranello would be to sign Kovalainen and he is a ??? at this point.

 

Anything can happen - F1 is a crazy world. Who would have thought FA would join Mclaren and actually announce it this early. If you read the press release it says something about getting this out of the way now so that the drivers and team can focus 100% on the job for 2006. That's "Ronspeak" for you. It probably means finalizing a deal w/ Kimi, attracting more sponsors and attracting good people to join the team in 2006 and beyond.

Everyone was surprised when we heard about Newey leaving Mclaren for RBR. Everyone was saying Mclaren won't be as good w/o him. People were saying this was a major coup...blah..blah...blah.

I'm sure this won't be the last surprise we hear from Mclaren. I really think they will be the team to beat in the next couple of years.

As for JPM, who knows...???

 

I agree.
I see rossi and kimi at Ferrari in 07 or 08.

 

I still don't get this F1 speak about only being able to have 1 good driver on one team. Why? Why can't McLaren have both FA and KR? That has Superteam written all over it! The team produces two cars to the best of their ability and then lets the drivers go at it! It would all but guarantee them a WC IMO, because if one doesn't win, the other will. Not to mention Kimi has said he "is not opposed to driving on the same team as Alonso". Why not? Because it would bring out the best in BOTH drivers!

Coming from the NASCAR world I look at Roush Racing. They have 5 completely seperate teams. They build all identical parts and hand them to the teams and drivers to do what they can with them. All 5 of their drivers finished in the top 10 in points this year, finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 10th. So why can't McLaren have 2 top drivers at the same time? I constantly hear this in F1 talk and just don't understand the concept.

Here's how I'd like to see things go in 2007.

McLaren: Alonso/Kimi
Ferrari: Massa/Rossi
JPM in a Toyota or a reunion with Willliams.
Renault: Kovaleinin/some other driver

 

Flav reckons he knew nothing about this deal:

Not sure if I believe him. If it's true then I would guess that his relationship with Alonso will be damaged. If it's not true then Flav's masters at Renault won't be too pleased...

 

This is VERY interesting. I myself don't believe Flavio. Out of all the people in F1, how can he not have known about this?

Plus history shows Ron Dennis always let's the other management know if he is talking to their drivers, engineers, etc. This is what he did with JPM. He let Frank know he was interested and in talks with JPM.

F1 is such a small world and my friends that work there tell me swapping personnel between teams are very common. From drivers all the way to marketing staff. Rival teams actually recommend their own staff to other teams.

Based on what I've observed about FA, he looks like a really grounded person that would at least let Flavio know this and not go behind his back.

I'm thinking Flavio's statement is more about dodging legal consequences from Renault and company more than anything.

 

It will be really funny if as a result of this Montoya signs on for Ferrari in 2007 - I wonder how many Ferrari fans on this board will continue to support the Scuderia.

Anything can happen