For Alonso it’s down to McLaren Honda or staying at Ferrari (2nd Update)
10/12/14 (GMM) Fernando Alonso dropped a big hint about his future after Sunday's Russian grand prix.
Wild rumors in the past few days suggested the Spaniard was working on a sensational deal to join dominant Mercedes next year, in Lewis Hamilton's place.
"This is all bullshit," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told German television Sky at Sochi.
"We have a driver lineup for next year," he said, referring to Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
"We just don't want to go into contract negotiations (with Hamilton beyond 2015) during this intense phase, which is why there are these rumors.
"But we have said that at the end of the season, we will get together and renew the contract," Wolff insisted.
Alonso has undoubtedly been in talks with McLaren-Honda for 2015, but the Woking team has reportedly been trying to drive down his retainer and insisting upon a more than one-year term.
It has triggered rumors Alonso could go elsewhere in 2015 as a 'stopgap' — perhaps Williams or Lotus, both of which will have the field-leading Mercedes V6 next year.
But the 33-year-old has now been quoted by the US broadcaster NBC after the Russian grand prix that his next team will not be powered by Mercedes.
"My future is already set," he told British television Sky a few minutes earlier. "Or already set in my mind for some months.
"Now we are finalizing everything," Alonso revealed. "You need to be patient, you need to wait a little bit.
"I cannot say anything until everything is completely done but it's good and I will do the best for my future and the best for the future of Ferrari because it is the team that I love.
"When you know it you will say 'it was so obvious you will do that'," he added…..which means he could stay at Ferrari and drive alongside Vettel, or move to McLaren-Honda. There is nothing else now.
10/08/14
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| Fernando Alonso caught with his pants down by Vettel move |
(GMM) Fernando Alonso is locked in "tough negotiations" with McLaren, the F1 correspondent Luis Vasconcelos claims.
Although the Spanish driver insists Sebastian Vettel's switch to Ferrari is a mere symptom of his own plans for the future, there are sections of the media who think the German actually caught Alonso off guard.
Some well-placed Spanish correspondents, for instance, think Alonso expected to be replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton, therefore opening up the prime seat at dominant Mercedes.
That suspicion would tie in with the fact that, like the rest of F1, even Red Bull was apparently caught off guard by Vettel's news, which was revealed to the team mere hours before it was made globally public. Of course for over one year AR1.com readers read many rumors placing Vettel at Ferrari.
But when Red Bull made it official, the energy drink company simultaneously closed the door to Alonso, saying the junior Daniil Kvyat will be promoted instead.
"This is a better solution than to have a star in the final years of his career," Dr Helmut Marko insisted to Austrian broadcaster Servus TV on Monday.
Vasconcelos, reporting for the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, said Red Bull's Marko "told Kvyat the good news just half an hour before it was officially announced".
Arguably the best driver in F1 but also perhaps the most temperamental, the dramatic turn of events may have left Alonso with only two choices for the 2015 season.
Vasconcelos claims that taking a sabbatical next year, just as Alain Prost had to do when he left Ferrari acrimoniously in 1991, is now a very real possibility for Alonso.
His only other option appears to be McLaren-Honda.
But those negotiations, Vasconcelos claims, are "tough". Indeed, a McLaren source told us "no one" currently knows how the situation with the Woking team's 2015 driver lineup will ultimately turn out.
"The Spanish star wants only a one-year contract, while McLaren is insisting on a commitment of at least two years," said Vasconcelos.
A one-year deal would leave Alonso theoretically free to leave McLaren after earning up to an incredible EUR 40 million in 2015, and then jump into Hamilton's plum seat at Mercedes for 2016.