German Bild has a few updates on the Alonso/Hamilton/McLaren saga: Alonso denies driving for Ferrari: "This option is not part of my plans. I haven't heard anything from Ferrari. There Kimi and Massa already have a contract for next year." Now there are rumors in Spain, that the team will be split into Mercedes (solely under its own name) with Alonso and Prodrive with Ron Dennis and Hamilton. Meanwhile Briatore is trying to get Alonso back to Renault. http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/sport/motorsport/2007/10/02/briatore-alonso/briatore-alonso-rueckkehr,geo=2599224.html
The reverse was suggested over the weekend ie that they had everything in place including sponsorship but just awaited the ruling re customer cars and/or the new Concorde agreement
I didn't hear that exactly but I did hear that McLaren/ProDrive was waiting for approval to run next year and I heard there will be 24 cars on the grid next year as well, so that makes sense... No word on drivers though...
Actually makes sense - Alonso will be N1 in one team and Hamilton is N1 in another - they both stops wine and it explains how Alonso will maintain his contract.
*IF* this really should happen, I wonder how much of a difference there will be between the teams? They both will have the same engine, same tires and with the new rules basically the same chassis. Differences will probably more boil down to who runs the better organization and does quicker individual improvements. With practically 4 McLarens on the grid, maybe Ferrari should think about selling its chassis along with the engine? 6 Ferrari/STR/Tatas wouldn't hurt as a counter balance.
Are we really expecting Prodrive to be competitive with McLaren/Ferrari/Renault/BMW in its first season? And why would Alonso go there rather than Renault where he has a much more legitimate chance of winning the WDC in 2008?
Ferrari is doing the exact same thing. They are going to be doing this with Toro Rosso. Additionally Ferrari is close to becoming the official chassis/engine supplier for the A1GP series. Which would really be a major financial boost to the Scuderia............here is the article: Watch out for action down Faenza way As McLaren is moving towards becoming the first team with a serious customer supply deal, the rival F1 teams are beginning to react, knowing that McLaren stands to get an advantage if it uses all four cars successfully as this will mean that the chassis in question will get twice as much testing as its rivals and should therefore improve accordingly. The team that is going to be most affected by such a development is Ferrari and so it is not real surprise to hear rumours that the Italian firm is in serious negotiations to create a similar situation. We are hearing that Ferrari is close to a deal with the South African Portuguese businessman Tony Teixeira. He is the man who runs the A1GP Series and the suggestion we hear is that Teixeira will buy control of Scuderia Toro Rosso from Red Bull and this will then allow the team to be transformed into a serious Ferrari customer team. The team is currently being supplied with chassis by Red Bull Racing and uses Ferrari engines. As part of the deal there appears to be an arrangement in place that will see Ferrari named as the supplier of engines and chassis to the A1GP Series. This will produce some useful income for Ferrari and give the team connections in the business world in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, where A1 has had its most impact.
If all of the above is true, finally some positive F1 news. 24 cars on the grid sounds great, except at Monaco.
I don't like the idea of customer cars at all, but I'm glad Ferrari isn't sitting idly by. I wonder what STR's new name will be. Scuderia Dino?
Disagree. If that were to happen it would only be a matter of time before the entire field ran ferrari/Mclaren chassis. I like the red team out of any one but would hate to see a spec series almost. Hopefully the FiA will make some rules about this.
There is no need to curtail customer cars: The whole point about F1 today is for the manufacturers to show off their engineering talents. So Renault, BMW, Toyota, Honda etc will always build their own chassis. The FIA allows customer cars because the show needs a full field. F1 has become too expensive for the backmarker teams. Customer cars will address that problem.
