McLaren open the door to re-sign unsettled Alonso
Published:
McLaren have admitted their interested in resigning Fernando Alonso from Ferrari amid rumours of discontent between the driver and Italian team.
The 32-year-old’s previous life as a McLaren driver however was infamously tempestuous.
Alonso fell out with team-boss Ron Dennis and team-mate Lewis Hamilton, before leaving the team after just a single campaign which saw McLaren excluded from the Constructor’s Championship and fined $100m for the Spy-Gate scandal.
That 2007 season also yielded four wins however, and Alonso finished just a point shy of that year’s champion Kimi Raikkonen.
With Dennis and Hamilton both having since left McLaren, what remains is a team that Alonso can mould to his own requirements and the two-time champion is 8/1 to rejoin his old team.
He is 1/25 to remain at Ferrari next season, despite the Italian squad re-signing Kimi Raikkonen – a man who won’t play second fiddle to the passionate Spaniard.
The arrival of the laid-back but rapid Finn has led several in the F1 fraternity to question if the duo can get along next season – and many suggest that they won’t.
Rumours have surfaced in recent weeks Alonso is not happy with the team, and the team are less than happy with Alonso.
The Spaniard joined Ferrari in 2010, and lost out that year to Vettel in a title-deciding final race in Abu Dhabi due to a strategic error by the team. In 2012 he transcended the car’s ability time and time again, before once more losing out to the German in a title shootout, this time in Brazil.
As the current campaign slips from his grasp, and with Raikkonen now on Maranello’s payroll, it’s little surprise to see Alonso’s patience wavering.
Despite enduring a miserable 2013, McLaren had arguably the quickest package last year, and are a team known for regularly producing race-winning cars.
With technical changes on the horizon for next season, and a Honda engine deal to start in 2015, the Woking-based team are an attractive proposition to become a race-winning force once more.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
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