And that's the second time someones assumed there would be any point in Ferrari having a suit for Fred ready this week whilst ignoring the fact that they already employ a spaniard

just kidding, of course I know it belongs to marc, the coincidence was funny though

At least i wasnt totally screwed, something was announced im sure that is much more than most of you expected when you read my posts.

Really sorry, dont know what went wrong. I repeat again for "non-believers/bashers/posters that can't provide useful information except their biased opinions and constant trolling", Alonso will be announced this week as a ferrari driver for 2010 replacing Kimi. That is 100% sure, atm don't know the time of the announcement, thursday, earlier, no idea really, i'll try to get more information tonight.

It doesn't really matter when the official announcement will be made. Everyone already knows what they're going to say. Maybe three people (at best) will be mildly surprised, the rest will be thankful that the whole thing is finally over.

Oh, and my boy still needs a drive. It's not looking especially good so I'm thinking of changing my mind about Renault; they might be marginally better than nothing after all.

Wouldn't Brawn be good?

I don´t think that it´s looking that bad. They (Kimi and his management) already know for a while what´s going on and I bet they already looked around at other teams. I think that he already knows where he will drive for next year.

What a load of crap ... September 10th Santander press conference has been announced for two months, search back I 've mentioned it 10 times ... Announced as in invitations to the press conference on September 10th were sent two months ago. Jeez.

It's about Santander sponsoring Ferrari ... it's not news really

That article made me happy! Nice read.

It's really a shame that such contributors are driven from the board.

My thoughts exactly. Hysteria.

Well, with today's announcement, you've certainly gained credibility, at least to my eyes Let's wait and see what happens this week, and let's pray so that at last we can end speculation that's been going on for... two, three years now? my god.

I wonder if Kimi feels offended by that... its like Ferrari saying to him: you can be our 2007 champion but we SOOOO DO NOT WANT YOU TO DRIVE FOR US.....

That could happen to Alonso too. I remember his mclaren days.

Ferrari are negotiating with Kimi for 2011. Ferrari is using the Alonso to Ferrari story to put pressure on Kimi to sign at a much reduced retainer, Kimi is using the Massa situation and the Nokia/Brawn rumors to pressure Ferrari. It's typical F1 negotiations.

The Spanish people are so new to F1 they have no clue how it works. They think a sponsor can dictate driver choices to Ferrari

Once again no Ferrari driver announcements will made in Monza

If you go to Kimi's Official forum you'll se tons of non-Spaniards being worried because of Santander going to Ferrari: Germans, Fins, British... all doing exactly what you only applied to the Spaniards. So your slur against the Spaniards is out of place.

+1 for that comment, I miss his info, which was usually insightful and more importantly, reliable.

But Mr. joined-four-days-ago will show them, eh?

I'm sure he doesn't! The man know his value and has recently stated that other teams want him, and that he will be in F1 next year.

If he really goes to Mclaren or to Mercedes/Brawn is a matter of choice and management. And the only thing we fans must ask for is a great car so he can be paid from Ferrari to win the title in another team.

....and that would be the most laughable outcome for Ferrari.

To sign Alonso and drop Kimi, only to have Kimi do better.

As I said to another guy who said the exact same thing, my original account on this forum was metso. If you have a way for me to recover the password (which doesn't include having access to an email account I used 10 years ago) do share.

At least I didn't discover F1 after Hungary 2003 completely missing out on 50 years of history and suddenly think some random bald guy calls all the shots in F1

Well, yeah, but you can't really say that Ferrari's reputation has been too good ever since Dom went and took control. I mean, I still have nightmares of those "accidents" in the first half of the season, like choosing not to drive, putting on extreme wets in the dry .. They have been pathetic in my opinion, so such an outcome would not be a huge surprise to me. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if we hear Schumi was behind it all.

Starting to set things up for the attacks on Ferrari I see

I really really hope Kimi goes back to McLaren, just to see how you handle it. I predict good times.

that would be sooo laughable... if Kimi in a McLaren suddenly becomes the "......the real Raikkonen, the one that everyone fears" as Luca dM once put it..... but it would make an incredible season.... Ferrari with Alonso against Mclaren with Kimi and LH....

hence that is if both teams produce good cars... otherwise we'll have another mediocre season with impotent drivers leading the championship

Not at all?

It will be a sign too, like i said before.

I hope McLaren hang Kimi dry. I am sure McLaren must have been pretty hurt when he said bad things about them and how he was "happier" at Ferrari. Now that Ron is out, there is no Fin lovers at McLaren.

It's also funny how Kimi fans have changed their tune about McLaren ever since the rumors about Kimi being kicked out came around. All of a sudden McLaren is not such a bad team after all, after more than 2 years of non stop slagging off. I don't want fans like those in the team.

Who .. what .. I don't even .. How the HELL can you claim that all of Kimi fans said bad things about McLaren, when to my knowledge, being a Kimi fan myself and participating particularly at his official forum, most Kimi fans actually like McLaren. A lot of Kimi fans used to be McLaren/Hakkinen fans. The Kimi fans I know personally have never really supported Ferrari - they just wished for them to good, so that Kimi might do good himself.

McLaren is a very solid option in my opinion, but it's not very likely, based on what Kimi has stated himself. As you say MaxFan1.

agreed, no lineup confirmation from ferrari this weekend as usual would hint at external negotiations

A lot of Kimi fans called McLaren cheater and liars. And now all of a sudden when Kimi is about to be forced out, all is forgiven! I don't buy it.

Well, they were, weren't they? As far as I know, they were proven guilty in the Spy-gate, so nothing strange there.

Besides, that was under Dennis' command. Martin Whitmarsh is luckily a much different person. I don't forgive cheating, but I wish Kimi the best. And McLaren hopefully have learned their lesson, just as Ferrari seems to be a bit more on the good side these days.

Evidence please.

He is missed.

+1

Imagine yourself translating huge chunks of text for months for free, just for some dicks to give you shit everytime one of the news wasn't kind to their holy fav driver/team; then have an abnormally large queue of people defending you with awkward over-the-top praise, like if you were the messiah; then another queue of dicks saying the praise is too much.

Yeah I bet that'd get annoying after a while.

I think you pretty much covered the complete scale of annoyances for a poster like AFCA.

Who said that? Maybe Alonso already signed some months ago, and Santander moves to Ferrari just because Alonso have already signed.

Santander "moved" to Ferrari last year, unless of course you mean Alonso signed for Ferrari before November 2008. Keep in mind in November 2008 Alonso also signed for Renault, and Ferrari also renewed Raikkonen, which would make them all slightly insane if they are signing contracts left right and center

just go to thescuderia.net and view all the old threads.

as a long term forum reader +2

Only one who get hurt is Alonso fan's when they notice that their over hyped sad excuse of a driver will not ever get Ferrari seat, because he does not deserve it.
I'm a Ferrari fan and it is MY TEAM and I dont want Alonso in it, because he is shit and has been trashed by so many second level drivers in so many years it makes me laugh

Only way Alonso is getting any seat anywhere is to buy it with Santander money. Kimi does not have to buy his seat, because he is a true racer and he is together with Massa the best drivers on the grid atm.

but why would you want Kimi to be associated with such dishonest and amoral team? Some of them are saying he belongs there, what an insult!

Even after one post you just might be this forums premier troll.

In a way, Alonso might end up be a pay driver. KR probably doesn't bring any money whereas Ferrari will save KR's salary plus Santarder will be pay Alonso.

Alonso's agreement with Ferrari dates may 2008.
And I saw it first published here:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20397.html
"
MAY 24, 2008
Alonso signs for Ferrari

The word in the F1 paddock in Monte Carlo is that Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010.
No confirmation is expected for a year, and there may be denials of any arrangement, as there would obviously be some serious knock-on effects for other parties in the F1 paddock.

Alonso went to Renault this year after splitting with McLaren unexpectedly at the end of last season. It was a stop-gap solution for the Spaniard, although it was dressed up as the big return to the team with which he won his two World Championships. This year the team's performance has been rather disappointing and Fernando has scored just nine points, while Nelson Piquet has failed to score and the team is languishing in seventh place in the Constructors' Championship. Unless there is a dramatic improvement soon the team will have no hope of finishing the year better than fourth in the championship and there have been rumours for some time that ING may be looking around at other opportunities.

Fernando has made no secret of the fact that he will consider other offers if they are sensible. He has been angling for a ride at Ferrari for some time. It may seem that is a rather premature move, but these days in F1 deals are being done much earlier than used to be the case. Kimi Raikkonen's deal with Ferrari, which began in 2007, was first reported as being done as early as October 2005. Alonso's 2007 deal with McLaren was announced in December 2005. Thus now would be the time that deals are being done for 2010.
"

If it was really like that, then why continue Massa's and Kimi's contracts for 2010? I mean KR's contract extension was announced about one year ago, for 2010. Makes no sense. If Ferrari had Alonso as certain for 2010, then Ferrari should not have signed contracts with both KR and FM for 2010 as well.

Pure speculation. If at all a deal with FA was inked it must have been done sometime in the first-half of this season. The "grandprix" report is probably something like Ferrari & FA coming to an agreement to sign a contract but not the contract per se. And I doubt even that would have been for the 2010 season.

Ferrari extended Massa's contract for 2010 (in 2008) indeed.
Kimi used his own option for 2010 - who would not with so many money involved.

Also in gp site:
"
Alonso wanted to go to Ferrari in 2008 but the team had no space for him so he settled for Renault, unconvinced by the other options available. It is believed that Alonso signed a pre-contract with Ferrari at the end of last year to join the team in 2010. Ferrari then turned around and used this to bid for the Santander money. Ferrari's problem was that Santander wanted primary sponsorship but could not have it because Ferrari had previously agreed a deal with tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI), the owners of the Marlboro brand, to continue until the end of 2011. Originally PMI had wanted to stop funding Ferrari at the end of this year, despite a deal that ran to 2011. PMI has long owned the entire sponsorship space on the Ferrari and sells it on to other sponsors, at a premium of around 30% on top of the price it paid. In order to keep the Marlboro money Ferrari promised to significantly increase the money that PMI made from the sponsorship. Santander was keen to join the party with Alonso and so a deal was agreed that will begin in 2010 and will provide Santander with significant badging on the car and an option to become title sponsor in 2011, PMI with a much better return on its investment, Alonso with the hope that he might be able to win another World Championship while Ferrari has the budget it needs - a win-win situation for all concerned.
"
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21709.html

Good post. I remember reading the article. It was probably an 'options' agreement.

I agree that Alonso would not cost a team very much, if anything, to employ. He does take heavy sponsorship with him wherever he goes.

Do I detect a bit of elitism here? We should should be judging people the quality of their comments and not the number of posts they have attributed to their avatar.

Why the hell did they sign with Alonso in May 2008?
At this time Kimi was leading the championship. Makes no sense at all.

Well, you are still showing your face after Alonso got his ass whipped by a rookie.