Spanish bank agrees deal with Scuderia. We do the maths
Santander, a Spanish bank, is to end its association with McLaren and switch to Ferrari from the start of the 2009 season. German magazine Sport Bild claims that the deal is worth up to €25m per season.
Santander began sponsoring McLaren last year, coinciding with Fernando Alonso’s contract to race with the team. But Alonso left the team after one unsatisfactory year, leaving Santander with a team but without a champion.
Not very interesting news, you might think. But the implication of the deal is very clear: Ferrari have agreed a deal with Alonso for 2009.
We’re very confident that Alonso will leave Renault at the end of 2008 to become Kimi Raikkonen’s team-mate in 2009 - the Finnish world champion announced this week that he will honour his contract and stay with Ferrari for at least one more season. What a strong driver line-up that would be.
The man to lose out is Felipe Massa, who is having his best ever season in F1, but who drive so badly at Silverstone on Sunday that his stock fell a long way. Massa won’t find it difficult to get another seat - he could even replace Alonso at Renault.
We will probably have to wait until September’s Italian GP at Monza - where Ferrari traditionally announces its driver line-up for the next season - for an official announcement. But trust us - Alonso will be driving a red car in 2009, with Santander and Marlboro tipped to pick up his €30m retainer.
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6 responses so far
1 jelena // Jul 10, 2008 at 9:50 am
yaaaaaay ! alonso deserves that, but OMG, has ferrari REALLY learned NOTHING from the alonso-mclaren situation ?
if he’s not the center of attention, alonso just cant function….
2 Lia // Jul 10, 2008 at 10:55 am
I hate to say it, but you guys on this site are going to look like A-rate plonkers with egg on your face, and disgraced from your integrity when it emerges that he’s not going to be at Ferrari.
I doubt people will ‘trust you’ quite as much then…
Perhaps when you put a story like this under ‘F1 Rumours’ , you ought to think carefully about whether to wait for some confirmation before jumping the gun so quickly.
I’m a huge fan of Fernando’s, but I don’t see it happening….not yet anyway.
3 Racehound // Jul 10, 2008 at 11:06 am
Of course Ferrari learned from Alonsos 2007 season at McIdiots!!!! They learned that you NEVER give a rookie equal status to a double world champion or your team will implode!!!
Fernandos season at McIdiots has nothing to do with him driving for Ferrari. Every team wants the best driver, and Ferrari are no different. He is the driver to bring back the higher performance level Ferrari are missing at the moment. Massa seems too error prone, and Raikkonen is not that interested…..only Fernando is super motivated to stuff McIdiots for their clown management of the team in 2007!!!! viva Alonso….Forza Ferrari!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
4 Racehound // Jul 10, 2008 at 12:16 pm
hey Lia…..i said last July when everyone was still second guessing the internal strife at McIdiots that Fernando was already trying to get to Ferrari when he realised moRon Dennis was only using him to help Hammerhoid win the title!!! Why would ANY team boss give equal status to an inexperienced rookie when he has a double world champion in the other car??? moRon wanted Hamilton to win the title for the extra street cred he would have got for guiding his protege to the title in his rookie year!!!! And beating the double world champion at the same time!!! Alonso got wise to this , and wasnt going to let it happen……but he already knew he had to get out of McIdiots by the end of the season!! Im pretty sure he and Ferrari had a verbal agreement well before the end of last season!!!!
5 Kimi Raikkonen's Mum // Jul 10, 2008 at 10:00 pm
That driving suit is ridiculous. the bottom half pattern just screams ‘look at my balls’
6 Razor Cooper // Jul 11, 2008 at 10:52 am
As much as I would like this to happen, you’ve got your dates wrong. Santander are contracted to McLaren for 2009 and it would cost them to much to break that contract.
The sponsorship and Alonso move will not happen until 2010