Driver movement already speculated. I'm wondering who Mclaren are looking to bring in. I'm guessing someone whose attitude is a lil better than Alonso's?
Quote:
Alonso to Ferrari, Massa to Toyota
Fernando Alonso is reportedly off to Ferrari next season in a £20m per year deal, while Felipe Massa is moving to Toyota.
Alonso's position at McLaren has become more untenable with the FIA's confirmation that it was the Spaniard's emails that resulted in the team being stripped of their 2007 Constructors' Championship points and handed a £50m fine.
And with Ron Dennis admitting that his relationship with his driver is "extremely cold" and that Alonso's unhappy with the team's equality policy, the double World Champion's time at McLaren appears to be running out - and fast.
In fact, according to the News of the World, Alonso has just three more races as a McLaren driver having already agreed to join Ferrari.
According to the tabloid, the Spaniard has agreed a £20 million a year deal to join Ferrari for 2008, leaving Felipe Massa out in the cold.
Massa, though, is already making plans for the future with the Daily Mail claiming that he 'opened preliminary negotiations with Toyota last weekend.'
The newspaper went on to say that Massa's decision to leave Ferrari could be based on team boss Jean Todt's pending (and unwanted) retirement in order to make way for Ross Brawn's return.
The Ferrari tech director, who is nearing the end of his year-long sabbatical, is expected to return to the Scuderia next season as team boss. And should this happen it could place Todt's son, who is also Massa's manager, in an uncomfortable position.
'Massa is acutely aware that if Jean Todt, as expected, loses an impending internal power struggle within Ferrari, he will be instantly vulnerable as he is managed by the Frenchman's son, Nicholas,' the Mail surmised.
On a personal note, P-F1 believes Alonso would do well at Ferrari... after all he already knows all about the car and how to set it up. Click
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Renault gets there no.1 driver back and Alonso goes to a team where he is No.1...
I've lost a lot of respect for Alonso in over the past year.
Quote:
Renault offer Alonso his job back
Fernando Alonso stands on the brink of returning to Renault for next season after Flavio Briatore offered him his old job back.
Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has confirmed offering Alonso his old job back whenever he decides to quit McLaren.
That could be as soon as the season finishes providing McLaren supremo Ron Dennis agrees to the Spaniard's release following a contentious year with the British team.
Briatore said: "I told Fernando that the moment he is free from McLaren we would be pleased to have him back. It would be stupid to deny that."
Alonso's relationship with Dennis is severely strained following a furious row between the two men on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old threatened to reveal details of emails that would incriminate McLaren in the spy scandal unless he was guaranteed number one status within the team.
Alonso has also endured a fractious battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who is poised to take his world title after a stunning win in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.
Briatore is convinced Alonso would not have quit Renault if he had been aware he would receive the same treatment as a rookie.
"If, before signing the contract, they told Fernando 'come with us, but you won't have any sort of advantage', he wouldn't have gone," Briatore told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"If you hire a World Champion, then you must give him the number one status."
Briatore claims Alonso will be afforded that prestige if he does quit McLaren and rejoin Renault, who helped him win the 2005 and 2006 World Championships. Click
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McLaren: Renault had entire blueprint of our cars -
11-23-2007, 04:10 PM
This is a pretty damning allegation and if it proves true, I'm interested to see what the FIA does. Keep in mind that these allegations are way worse than what Mclaren was found guilty of. It should be more than a 100 million pound fine. If it is the same or more, rumour is Renault will have to pull out of F1. Let's see what happens.
Quote:
LONDON -- McLaren has raised the stakes in Formula One's latest spy scandal by releasing details of its allegations against rival Renault.
Renault has been summoned to a Dec. 6 hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on charges of having "unauthorized possession of documents and confidential information" of McLaren cars between September 2006 and October 2007.
British newspapers on Friday quoted a memo leaked by McLaren's lawyers suggesting that Renault's activities were more serious than those that resulted in McLaren being fined a record $100 million for possessing Ferrari documents.
"It is clear that McLaren's confidential design information was knowingly, deliberately and widely disseminated and discussed within the Renault F1 design and engineering team," McLaren's law firm, Baker McKenzie, said in a submission to the World Motor Sport Council.
The actions provided Renault "with a clear benefit and unfair advantage," the memo said.
If Renault is found guilty and handed a penalty similar to McLaren's, it's uncertain whether the team would be able to continue in F1.
Renault allegedly possessed technical documents from McLaren that engineer Phil Mackereth brought to the French team when he moved from McLaren in September 2006.
Renault said it suspended Mackereth in September as soon as company officials learned of his actions and immediately alerted McLaren and governing body FIA.
The McLaren memo says that 33 files containing more than 780 individual drawings outlining the entire technical blueprint of the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars were copied onto 11 floppy disks in March 2006.
McLaren says the disks were loaded onto 11 Renault F1 computers in September 2006, when Mackereth joined Renault, and were discussed by up to 18 Renault F1 personnel, including a group of senior engineering chiefs and heads of department.
Renault has downplayed the importance of the technical information, saying it covered only four "basic systems," one of which was obsolete. Renault acknowledged Mackereth had shown the data to other engineers but denied any of the information had influenced the design of the Renault car. Click
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Spanish race fans could face legal action for racist taunts of Hamilton
Spanish race fans could face legal action for racist taunts of Hamilton -
02-04-2008, 04:43 PM
New season, new scandals.
The FIA is threatening to pull 2 Spanish GP's because of this.
I'm all for it. Spain has done very little to show that they are serious about dealing with racism. Remember England playing against Spain? How about the Spanish NT's coaches comments about Henry?
Something needs to be done.
Quote:
MADRID, Spain -- Spain could lose both of its Formula One races following the racist taunting of driver Lewis Hamilton by spectators over the weekend.
AP Photo/Manu Fernandez
During Formula One testing in Spain on Saturday, fans at the track reportedly showered Lewis Hamilton with racial epithets.
Governing body FIA said Monday that the racial abuse aimed at Hamilton, F1's first black driver, during testing at the Barcelona circuit could result in sanctions.
Under FIA's statutes, punishment can include removing races from the Grand Prix calendar. The Spanish Grand Prix is set for April 27 at the Montmelo circuit in Barcelona, and the European GP at Valencia is Aug. 24.
"We are going to be writing to the national sporting authorities in Spain on what happened over the weekend and off of that report we will be deciding on what steps will be taken," FIA said Monday. "Formula One is a global, multicultural sport -- it does not have scenes like this in its history and doesn't want to see scenes like this."
Spectators aimed abusive gestures and shouted racist abuse at the 23-year-old Hamilton -- who finished second in the drivers' championship last year in his rookie season -- when he moved between the McLaren motorhome and the team's garage at the Montmelo circuit on Saturday.
A group of spectators wore wigs, dark makeup and T-shirts with the words "Hamilton's Family" scrawled on them.
The circuit said Monday it may take legal action against those spectators involved in the racist taunts.
"The truth is that I feel somewhat sad, I am in love with this country, and especially the city of Barcelona and this circuit, which is one of my three favorites," Hamilton told sportlifepress.com. "The people in Spain have always been very warm with me, and even though I imagined what might happen it has not been pleasant."
In Spain, Hamilton is widely blamed for Fernando Alonso's failure to clinch a third straight championship last season after the Spaniard joined McLaren from Renault. Alonso, who has since rejoined Renault, finished third in the drivers' standings.
"I would like them [the Spanish fans] to understand my position," Hamilton said. "The only thing that I have done is to try to give the best of myself and try to win the championship, at no point have I tried to deliberately prejudice Fernando, but the fight has been very tough and my image in Spain has been severely damaged."
McLaren sought to downplay the incidents.
"McLaren has raced and tested on Spanish circuits for many years, and everyone connected with the team regards Spain and the Spanish people with great affection, Lewis included," the team said in a statement.
British Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe condemned the "sickening" incidents and said he would write to his Spanish counterpart to express concern.
"Racism should not be tolerated and this is not the first time British sportsmen have been racially abused in Spain," he said. `This brings in question whether the Grand Prix should be held at this track."
Sunday's testing was incident free, with Hamilton stopping to sign autographs for fans and pose for pictures.
08-05-2007, 03:28 PM
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