Spies inside Ferrari?

Hello there:

In all the subjects related to the "Scuderia" I have almost always agreed with all the post of Turdo, a member of the forum that I have in high esteem and always he has delighted us with very high level news as a result of his contacts.

But in this case I have to disagree with him on one certain subject: Michael Schumacher. The german champion is not very much in favour of having Alonso in Ferrari. This is a very long and complex subject, so I will try to summarize, be brief and go to the point as far as possible.

I will go back to the Prince of Asturias Awards 2007. It is true (according to information) that Michael and Fernando had a private meeting in which they commented some things, but the connotations of that meeting were others than the initially could be assumed.

The Prince of Asturias Awards Organization planned that Fernando, being from Oviedo and a winner of the award in 2005, appeared publicly with the german and to be his host in all the acts before the ceremony. The Spaniard in a gesture that honors him,he refused for a very simple reason: being so popular and especially playing at home, he didn't want to susbtract from the real protagonist at this time: Michael Schumacher.

The German was double surprised: on one hand, Fernando Alonso's behavior impressed him very positively. And by the other hand, the affection from the supporters shook him deeply. After all, they had another meeting in where Michael Schumacher thanked Fernando both things.

About the future of Fernando they spoke little or nothing between them, just some reference to 2007, where Michael acknowledged that Alonso should have won the title and only the ineptitude of McLaren gave the title to Kimi and also, the enigmatic words from the german driver: "In Ferrari this would have never happened."

The unique conclusion that can be extracted from this meeting is that both have make smooth their relationship after the tremendous sporting rivalry they had in 2006 when they disputed the title till the last race; but from there to say that Michael wants Fernando to be in Ferrari, there is a huge difference.

The german driver (as I mentioned in another post) wants another german driver: Vettel. The lad has a great future ahead and he is one of the few (among with Kubica) of the new generation who might someday get to the level of Alonso.

The problem that Ferrari has, is that his president is more scared from the Spaniard than from a werewolf. He knows that meanwhile Vettel get mature, Fernando can "score" 2 or 3 world champioships more.

Luca wants Alonso, but he doesn't. I mean he would prefered him to stay where he is right now; in a team that has no options to fight for the world title. The fears of Montezemolo are just two: BMW and Honda. He knows that any of those teams with Fernando Alonso in the lead could be very scary. The german team in the 2009 and the japanese team in the 2010 at the latest.

So that, the future of Alonso depends a lot on the movements that the "big teams" would do for getting Alonso as a driver for the next year. If in Maranello, people start seeing clearly that Fernando could have a competitive car for the next year, they will try all in order to recruit him. But if they have the intuition of him to stay in Renault, they will not move a finger to get hire Fernando.

There is no need to explain the very inteligent statements from Ross when saying that in 2009, Honda will not even fight for podiums. In the Honda team, they really expect to have a huge quality improvement that could
make them being "the BMW of nowdays" in the 2010, and they know that with Fernando they could even fight for the world crown.

Right now inside Ferrari, the movements are enormous and the "spy section" is working very hard. They need to know all the movements in the "market", trying to get Schumacher's preferred driver (Vettel), but over all, they WANT to know what is going to decide Fernando Alonso for the 2009.

Depending on how the manager of the Spaniard "plays the cards", Fernando could dress in the 2009 in red or staying one more year in Renault. Right now the options are very open, because now there are 2 more options; BMW and Honda.

During the season, everything will get clearer and more defined.

Best regards.


(Translation from a post of Trastu)

An incredible work.

Thank you very much

you are welcome