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.

source & pic: planet-f1

That's just bad.. I don't how Alonso's manager said that Alonso is staying at Mclaren after all this..

I don't see McLaren biased at the moment, but we never know what might be going on behind the scenes.
Nevertheless, I kinda feel that Monotya just wants to provoke Alonso.

Ferrari are set to turn their attention to the Drivers' title after being crowned the Constructors' Champions on Friday

The Scuderia won the teams' title for a record 15th time when McLaren opted against appealing their $100 million fine and the loss of all their 2007 Constructors' points.

Ferrari have scored 161 points so far this season while BMW, who are in second place, have just 92 making it impossible for them to take the Constructors' title away from the Italian stable.

Ferrari acknowledged the victory and McLaren's decision not to appeal in a statement on Friday evening.

"Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has won the 2007 Formula One Constructors' World Championship, taking its tally in this competition to fifteen, seven of them in the last nine years," the Italian squad said in a statement.

"Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has actually chosen not to appeal against the decision of the FIA World Council taken on 13th September last, thus accepting the sentence handed out for violation of article 151c of the International Sporting Code."

The Scuderia are now turning their attention to the Drivers' Championship. Kimi Raikkonen, who is third in the standings, is 13 points adrift of Championship leader Lewis Hamilton while Felipe Massa is a further seven points behind his team-mate.

"Ferrari will now invest all its efforts over the final three races of this Championship in trying to also win the Drivers' world title," the statement concluded.


source & pic: planet-f1