“I will win in 2018” Fernando back to Ferrari

· by · in Daily F1 News and Comment. ·

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…according to Spanish publication Diario Gol, they claim Ferrari are willing to repair bridges with Alonso saying that they recognise that their car wasn’t competitive enough to win championships when he drove for them.

Further, it is claimed that the team have made an approach to Alonso about driving for them next season, presumably to replace Kimi Raikkonen thus giving us the tantalising prospect of a team mate battle between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. But is that even a possible?

Even if the Maranello team took back the Spanish Samurai, the inevitable clash between finger boy Vettel and the Fernando would surely be contrary to a ‘Risky project’ that Alonso wants to avoid for 2018.

“I’m not going to sit down with anyone until September,” Alonso claims

“But I want to go to a safe project, not a risky one. I would like to be in a place I can be competitive from day one and win.”

“After 16 years, with everything I have achieved, I would like to be competitive in my last years in formula one,”

The options are clearly limited. At present only Mercedes and Ferrari are likely able to provide the equipment to be “competitive from day one and win”. Indeed tongues were wagging after Alonso’s manager Flavio Briatore tweeted a picture of the Italian taking out to dinner Mercedes duo Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda.

The obvious issues are similar for Alonso at Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton has an ongoing contract (for now), but Valtteri Bottas is only contracted for this year with Mercedes. However, the Finn has performed well enough to satisfy team and is expected to have his deal extended. Ex-World Champion Damon Hill, however, sees another reason why Mercedes could have “no place” saying:

“Fernando takes more than one place in a team and Lewis takes more than one place… Explosive! “says the Briton. “I do not see it working.”

But could we see Hamilton with a shock retirement at the end of the year? After all, he’s exceeded his idol Ayrton Senna’s records and it’s fair to say he has interests outside of Formula One. It would not be a surprise to anyone to see Hamilton pursue a celebrity career away from the sport a la David Beckham. Such a move would open a possible door up for Alonso, but this is purely conjecture.

The other move that has been touted for some time is that of Renault. The driver has returned to the Enstone team before after the last disastrous stint at McLaren ended badly in 2007 but Renault aren’t expecting to be on ‘winning terms’ with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull until at least 2019 according to the team’s boss, Cyril Abiteboul.

One thing for sure is that we’re getting more smoke and mirrors from the Spanish driver with recent claims that “Next year will be a happy year,” and “Wherever I will be, it will be the perfect solution,”.

Most importantly when quized specifically about his F1 prospects and not that of a switch to Indycar he responds “No matter what decision I will make, I will win in 2018. This will make me happy,”

Where does the Jury think Alonso will go in 2018?

18 responses to ““I will win in 2018” Fernando back to Ferrari”

  1. I would love to see him back at Ferrari….its where he belongs. Ferrari is the power and passion of F1….McLaren under Dennis were a business team, they raced only to finance racing and that was all they did. Ferrari have always built and sold cars, so the racing was part of the testing and design input for the road car sales which funded the racing. #:)

  3. WEC or Indycar next year. Anything but F1. Nobody will put Alonso in the same team as Hamilton or Vettel, not when the 2 are fighting over the 2017 championship.

  5. Let’s wait & see. Like they say in France, for now it’s urgent to wait! After Alonso left Ferrari he criticised the team quite a lot. I think there’s too much bad blood and acrimony now. On top of that it would represent a major U-turn in Ferrari philosophy to have 2 top drivers at the same time. In short : I don’t think it’s going to happen.

    • This isn’t the Ferrari team as run by the Todt regime but run by Sergio Marchione. By all accounts he was livid with Vettel after the foul mouthed tirade in Mexico last year and I doubt he was impressed by his antics in Baku because the driver has dragged the Ferrari name through poor press once again.

      Additionally, this is Ferrari’s 70th anniversary, not 20th as many commentators believe due to the Schumacher era. Before Schumacher, Ferrari were a team that the founder categorically stated – Ferrari wins races, drivers lose them. So no driver lay claim to being “number 1”.

      LdM allowed Todt to govern the team to success but his hiring of Kimi in 2007 was a statement that Ferrari were not a one driver team.

      If Alonso was re-employed by Maranello it’s a statement of intent to Vettel. Whilst he’s a great driver he is still not considered an inspirational driver behind the wheel.

      Personally I can’t think of any race where he’s overcome an imperfect car to win.

  7. I can see Ferrari wanting two cars at the front. Kimi is inconsistent. They need two cars at the front scoring points at every Grand Prix. I would sign Alonso to a one year contract with options, and Vettel to a three year with a resigning bonus. Alonso is desperate to win, I doubt he’ll balk at a one year deal with extension options. Plus a short term contract would keep him on a short leash. Advantage Ferrari.

  8. The question is who acuallty NEEDs Alonso and I have concluded that the only team that do would be McLaren. I doubt if any other teams want to risk conflict with their chosen ones. Alonso NEEDS Ferrari and Alonso Needs Mercedes but that is a different ball game.

      • He’s Alonso’s manager. Lauda and Wolff think Fred is poison, so the next best thing apart from a Mercedes seat, is to make sure that his protege gets a real A list Mercedes engine. Which is on par with the factory car – hence “engine parity”

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