To be announced Thursday, wonder what else, if anything, may accompany this announcement. Carol planet f1 Ferrari are on Thursday expected to unveil Santander as one of their title sponsors from next season. Speculation has been rife in Formula One that the Spanish banking giant were ready to end their three-year association with McLaren and switch to Ferrari. Santander initially teamed up with McLaren ahead of the 2007 season following double World Champion Fernando Alonso's decision to sign for the Woking-based team. Alonso's move, however, turned sour and his contract was terminated after one season, but with Santander locked into their deal. However, with that now coming to an end, Santander are to jump ship, further fuelling rumours Alonso will also soon join Ferrari. The team have called a press conference for Thursday at Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at which president Luca di Montezemolo and Emilio Botin, the president of the Bank of Santander, will both be present.
I agree about Alonso (pretty obvious) but I think KR will go to Nokia Renault (or wherever Nokia takes its money), assuming Renault doesn't get its azz handed to it by the FIA. So.....Alonso/Massa at the Scuderia. Alonso isn't my favorite personality (does any of these guys even have one of those?) but I think he's still the quickest and has more desire than anybody else on the grid. I think he and Massa will make a good pair. Jack.
There's still some ifs with Massa's return. It most likely won't be until he gets behind the wheel and shows he's back to form that they'll know he's in for sure. I'd imagine that if they're going to send Kimi walking they'll wait until the end of the season to announce it.
I'm going here out on very thin ice: Tomorrow Ferrari will announce its drivers for the 2010 season: Massa - Kimi and Alonso with Fisico as the test driver Getting rid of Kimi will be too costly, so unless he leaves on his own, Ferrari will use 3 cars next season. I could be way wrong on this. Wouldn't be the first time I end up with egg on my face. But quite frankly, who cares. As long as we have Alonso, life is good.
Plausible I like it, but I reckon if were going out on a limb here, Kimi will be paid $35m NOT to race for Ferrari, plus being paid bonuses for any results that he achieves with whichever team he moves to in 2010, plus a bonus if Alonso wins the title... I read that ..
Also another rumour : Mercedes-Benz wants to put Nico Rosberg into the team alongside Jenson Button to give German fans someone to get excited about.
Heard that too. The team being Brawn with 100% backing by Mercedes. The Brawns will be silver next year and "the other silver team" will loose its Mercedes support by the end of 2010. Big changes coming. Or not. After all it is the silly season.
Mercedes-Benz still owns a 40% share of McLaren, but this has proved to be not enough to control the business as there is a covenant between the other shareholders which means that Mercedes-Benz can be overruled. The suggestion is that Brawn will race next year in a silver livery, with Mercedes branding and a sponsorship deal from a German company. Also Ironically, Aabar recently bought a 32% share in Virgin Galactic, one of Brawns sponsors this year. Virgin is not believed to be involved as it is expected to be named as a partner in Manor Grand Prix, which we expect to see renamed Virgin F1 in the months ahead. And The suggestion is that Aabar will hold the Brawn stake until it can be passed on to Mercedes-Benz in 2012 after the German car manufacturers exclusive deal with McLaren comes to an end..there you have it Mr Dave.
I don't see why there's such a rush to sign Alonso for 2010. It's not like Ferrari will lose him if they wait untill 2011. Where's he going to go? McLaren? LOL
Interesting scenario. Any chance MB's intent all along was to have its own team and used Ross Brawn as a straw to take over Honda's team knowing that their relationship with McLaren had soured over the road car? MB may have been providing Brawn funding this year under the table (as has been rumored) thus avoiding any long term sponsorship commitments that might have complicated the rebranding you suggest will happen.
Frank will end up with no engines if Renault gets thrown out of F1. If Ferrari gives him an engine, he'd be gladly signing on the dotted line.
Well, well...given the way the Renault inquiry is heading with all the reported telemetry confirming that Piquet stuffed it on purpose after a team meeting where it was discussed to bring out the safety car (as admitted by Flav and Symonds) there is a chance that Alonso will not be driving for anyone next year.