McLaren today stunned formula one by announcing they have signed world champion Fernando Alonso for the 2007 season.
Alonso won his world title in a Renault and is contracted to the Anglo-French team for next season. However, he will now switch to McLaren for 2007, meaning either Kimi Raikkonen or Juan Pablo Montoya will be forced out.
My wife and I are big fans of Juan Pablo — he’s been “our” driver since he learned all his racing skills in the US. But, I’ll bet that when push comes to shove, he’ll be the one to leave McLaren.
It seems that when ever someone wins the world campionship with Renault/Benniton jumps ship.
On another note, I can’t stand Juan Pablo ever since he forced Michael S. wide on a turn in 2003.
Love the blog and TWIT
My bet is, Juan Pablo will stay while Kimi moves on to Ferrari. That leaves either Schumy to partner him or Massa to stay if schumy moves or retires.
How interesting would that be? Kimi and Schumacher side by side.
Although,realistically, I would expect Michael to retire.
Well Ron Dennis must be really happy cause now he has three of the greatest drivers (after M. Schumacher) to chose from. Flavio Briatore must be pissed because after getting Alonso to the top, Alonso is now leave him for a rival team.
It’s all a gamble. Nobody knows which car is going to be “the car” for the season. This season is Renault’s. McLaren only got their act together late in the season. Ferrari’s reign has ended. However, for all we know 2007 can be Toyota’s year. However, driver skill does play a roll, but this is only visible between drivers of the same team. M. Schumacher is better than Barichello, Alonso > Fischichella, Raikkonen > Mantoya … so, as long as you have the best car, and your teammate’s driving is worse than yours, you gambled good.
As a Colombian and Juan Pablo’s fan, I hope he can stay on McLaren as I think it will be a very strong team in the years to come. I think is very plausible that Kimi will be going to Ferrari. Nevertheless, with all the rule changes in the next years is very likely we will see a shift in powers in F1. I will definitively not discount Ferrari from coming back but I expect to see very strong teams overall: McLaren, Renault, Honda and Toyota (don’t forget Red Bull, Cosworth-Williams and BMW). Alonso had a good season, was very strong but was also very lucky. On the other hand Juan Pablo had very tough luck, was out for two races because of the injury and was taken out of the races when in strong position in several races.