Alonso and the Silly Season That Keeps On Giving

In all the 15 years I've been following Formula One, I cannot remember the driver market being as unsettled as it is currently at such a late stage of the season.

By this time last year, we knew that Kimi Raikkonen was on his way to Ferrari; the previous year, the world was aware by late September of the news that Lewis Hamilton had turned his back on McLaren in favour of Mercedes.

There seems to be a growing feeling in the paddock that there may yet be a silly season bombshell of comparable magnitude this year too, despite noises being made by the 'big four' teams to the contrary in recent weeks.

The key man is Fernando Alonso, whose future has been subject to all kinds of speculation for quite some time now despite the Spaniard having a contract to remain at Ferrari until the end of 2016.

Such lengthy deals always tend to have get-out clauses, and it appears that the Scuderia's lacklustre showing this year has triggered a performance clause that has led Alonso to start playing hardball with the newly-installed Ferrari management.

It has been said that Alonso wants a bonus payment for every point earned, not dissimilar to the ertswhile arrangement between Raikkonen and Lotus that almost bankrupted the Enstone outfit.

While Ferrari could undoubtedly afford such a deal, the Italian team is renowned for its dislike of drivers who see themselves as bigger than the collective - and the scent given by Alonso's negotiating tactics is hardly one of being a team player dedicated to the Maranello cause.

Still considered the sport's finest operator by many, Alonso has other options should Ferrari refuse to bow to their star driver's demands. McLaren have been making behind-the-scenes moves to try and lure the 33-year-old for getting on for a year now - so if Alonso's brinksmanship fails, he can be safe in the knowledge that Woking would welcome him back with open arms.

But, moving to McLaren in the first year of its new partnership with Honda - whose engines, it is easily forgotten, were far from the class of the field during the Japanese marque's most recent foray into F1 - would be a big risk, especially when 2015 will be the first full season for Ferrari's promising new regime headed by Sergio Marchionne, Marco Mattiacci and James Allison.

A switch to McLaren may not be Alonso's only option however. The big rumour doing the rounds in Singapore was that Alonso could be on the cusp of switching seats with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, an accusation denied by both.

But, that was before the full story of Alonso's negotiations with his team had come to light, and Vettel has long been believed to be at the top of Ferrari's shopping list in the event of Maranello needing a new lead driver.

The way he's been outperformed by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo must have made the thought of dissolving what is currently the longest-standing team/driver partnership on the grid cross Vettel's mind, especially since his favoured race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin, who has steered the German to four world titles, will no longer be by his side next year. And that's before you consider Adrian Newey taking more of a hands-off role once he's laid the foundations for next year's Red Bull.

But, the prospect of joining a McLaren team seemingly incapable of manufacturing a winning chassis will have hardly tempted Vettel to fly the Red Bull nest. A seat at Ferrari may be a different matter, though - if nothing else, the German would conclude he would easily have the measure of Kimi Raikkonen as a team-mate, whereas being beaten by Danny Ric two years on the trot simply isn't an option.

Even if Vettel were to conclude that his interests are best served by staying put, there's always a chance that Ferrari could orchestrate a swap between Alonso and Ricciardo.

Deserting the team that gave him his big break might seem inadvisable for the Australian, but you can hardly underestimate the potential lure of being drafted in by Ferrari to lead a new era in the team's history. Such a move didn't work out too badly for a certain M. Schumacher, after all.

Then there's Mercedes, which would probably be the team Alonso (along with just about every other driver on the grid) would opt to join if he had free choice.

But, with Nico Rosberg having signed a two-year extension to his contract earlier this year, the only route to Brackley for Alonso would be, as has been suggested in some quarters, if the Spaniard were to exchange seats with Lewis Hamilton, who still has a year to run on his contract.

Such a scenario taking place means Hamilton would have to lose the title to Rosberg in particularly acrimonious style - far from impossible to imagine, but an unlikely prospect now that the Brit has taken the lead of the championship following a seventh victory of the season at Singapore last weekend.

An unlikelier prospect still, however, is the latest story to emerge from the rumour mill turning into reality - that Alonso is bound for the cash-strapped Lotus team.

The disgraced former boss of the Enstone outfit, Flavio Briatore, is said to be trying to broker a deal for Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll (who has also been linked to purchasing Sauber and Marussia in recent weeks) to buy the team and pay for the services of Alonso, as well as the Mercedes engines that the team are ostensibly unable to afford under the current ownership.

Of all the options Alonso may or may not have, surely this one can be written off immediately. Finding a buyer would not miraculously transform Lotus's fortunes overnight; it would be a long-term project nurturing the team back to full competitiveness, probably at least three years - by which point, Alonso would be 36 years old and perhaps a little beyond his prime.

If joining McLaren would be a gamble, plumping for Lotus would be tantamount to re-mortgaging your house, flying out to Vegas and sticking the entire sum on zero at the roulette table.

So, where does all of that leave Alonso? Much depends on the outcome of the negotiations with Ferrari. A move to Mercedes (at least in 2015) looks to be a non-starter; perhaps it's not a surprise that those particular rumblings emerged from the Spanish press, who would no doubt love to see their darling cruise to a long overdue third world championship with a dominant car beneath him.

Of the remaining three options, Red Bull would be the only one worth deserting Ferrari in favour of at this stage. That would require one of the two incumbents at Milton Keynes to move in the opposite direction - a possibility, but only if a swap was arranged by the Scuderia.

Mattiacci's slightly cryptic response to the latest questions about Alonso's future at Singapore is telling. What it indicates is that Ferrari are no longer willing to bend over backwards to accommodate Alonso's every whim - after all, for a team that so famously values loyalty, what is a contract that allows the Spaniard to leave at the first sign of a vacancy emerging at a rival team really worth?

Of course, it's quite possible that Alonso and Ferrari will settle their differences and agree to continue for at least one more year, giving Maranello one final chance to finally rise to the challenge of producing the world-beating car its resources are capable of delivering after five seasons of falling short.

But, such a deal would almost certainly have to be written to allow Alonso to jump ship for 2016 if certain performance-related conditions are not met.

And, if Ferrari fails to come up with the goods again next year, we'll be left with more or less exactly the same scenario - except that Alonso will be one year closer to retirement, perhaps a little more desperate to find a way out of his long-term deal, and that a move to Mercedes or Red Bull may be a more viable prospect than it is currently.

Wherever Alonso moves next - if he does choose to depart Ferrari - is likely to be the place he sees out his F1 career; his decision consequently could well come to define his legacy.

Three titles have already slipped through his fingers, and no doubt several more will too if his choice, whatever it may be, turns out to be the wrong one.

Highlights from a trip to Monza

It's been just over a week since I returned from my trip to the Italian Grand Prix, and I can safely say that, of the three visits I've made to Formula 1 races in recent years, it was, for a number of reasons, much more enjoyable than my trips to Silverstone in 2012 or the Hungaroring last year.

Perhaps that doesn't come as a major surprise that both of the above events were characterised by extreme weather - torrential rain (except for, when it would have been most welcome, during the race itself) and baking heat respectively - although there are a number of other factors which would make me recommend a pilgrimage to Monza to any F1 fan.

Chief among these is that, unlike at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, where fans are pushed to the outside of the circuit away from the action, the layout of Monza is such as that you feel far closer to what's going on. The only area in which you can't roam freely around is the paddock, but you can walk the entire interior of the track all the way from Parabolica (where I was seated for Saturday and Sunday) up to the Lesmos.

Indeed, the pathway leading down from the Lesmo entrance - handily served by its own railway station on the Milan-Lecco line - allows you to walk under the old banking. That certainly helps to convey a sense of history about the venue that somewhere like Silverstone cannot; wherever you walk within the circuit grounds, there's a very special atmosphere that surpasses even that of Le Mans during the legendary 24 Hours.

Perhaps the best aspect of this freedom however is the number of big names you happen across during your travels. All weekend, there was a throng of fans massed at the entrance to the paddock waiting for someone of note to emerge, and I managed to take a cheeky snap of four-time champion and tifosi favourite Alain Prost as he was signing autographs.

He wasn't the only big name I encountered during my travels, though. Across the weekend, I was able to catch a glimpse of (in no particular order): Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Nasr, Stoffel Vandoorne, Dani Juncadella, Eric Boullier, Graeme Lowdon, Rob Smedley and - best of all - Martin Brundle, who I happened to bump into during the pitlane walk on Thursday afternoon. The Sky Sports commentator and F1/Le Mans star of yesteryear was kind enough to sign his autograph and pose for a picture with me (in which, sadly, I look like an utter goon, but there we are).

The pitlane walk, and not just because of my chance meeting with Brundle, was a particular highlight of the weekend, helping to remind me that this sport I obsess over and plan to dedicate my career to is in fact a real thing, providing thousands of real people with their livelihoods, and not just some fantasy-land that exists only on my TV screen as it can often seem!

Another of the weekend's memorable moments was when I tried my luck in the 'Gamezone', which allowed those to have purchased some official F1 merchandise (for the record, I purchased a Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull hat, as modeled in the below image) a go on a simulator. I was pitched against seven opponents and scored the second fastest lap time, enabling me to have another go. My second attempt was less successful, setting only the third best time.

But, the person with the third fastest time was given an attempt at the Batak challenge, used by professional athletes to hone their reflexes (to get an idea of what this entails, click here to watch Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have a go). To my astonishment, I set the high score for that day with 75, meaning I was invited back to a final showdown against Riccardo, an Italian, and Neil, an Irishman, who had also set the highest scores on their respective days.

I managed to up my score to 79 on my second attempt, but sadly it wasn't enough as Neil mustered 80 and Riccardo 82, the latter scooping the prize of a pair of grandstand seats for next year's race - at least he had the least far to travel of the three of us!

Moving on to the on-track action, one aspect of the weekend I was particularly anticipating was hearing the much-maligned new engine note of the new generation of F1 cars with my own ears. I was not among those who slated the new sound at the start of the year - in fact, I enjoyed being able to hear things like lock-ups and screeching tyres, which were previously drowned out by the high-pitch scream of the old V8s.

My opinion hasn't changed having now heard the cars trackside; I don't even think they need to be made louder, as has often been suggested. If you listened carefully, you could even tell which car ran which engine as it passed, all three manufacturers' power-units exhibiting subtly different tones that were a joy to differentiate for an anorak like me.

What F1 fans ought to remember is that the noise produced by engines made in any particular era was ultimately just a byproduct of the pursuit of performance. There were no artificial methods for making the engines sound better; that's just how they sounded anyway - the association with heroic feats on-track is what made the old noise so emotive. As this new era of F1 progresses, so fans will eventually learn to love its soundtrack.

The race itself hardly ranked among the most thrilling of the year, and it was a big shame that Rosberg's error (don't be fooled by the conspiracy theorists - if Mercedes really wanted Hamilton to win, there are many more fool-proof and less obvious methods of fixing a result that a team could deploy) denied us the latest installment in the brewing rivalry between the title protagonists.

Still, there was no shortage of wheel-banging further down the order to keep me gripped for the whole 53 laps of action. The race, as is often the case at Monza, felt like it was over very quickly - in 79 minutes in fact, as opposed to 102 at Hungary last year. Perhaps it's time that the FIA established a minimum length for Grands Prix as well as a maximum one.

A lack of success for Ferrari didn't appear to dampen the atmosphere too much in my grandstand, which unexpectedly featured a mammoth Danish contingent who whooped with joy when their hero Kevin Magnussen snatched fifth on the grid in the dying moments of qualifying. When they realised that the McLaren driver had made his way up to second at the start of the race, the grandstand virtually erupted!

The travelling Danes would have felt very aggrieved at Magnussen's penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the road at the first chicane, and rightly so. The incident mirrored that of Hamilton and Rosberg at Spa, with Bottas cast in the role of the latter. That the Finn decided to straight-line the chicane instead of risk a collision with the car he was trying to pass - as Rosberg did two weeks beforehand - should not have earned Magnussen a penalty.

Nevertheless, that was the only real sour note of the weekend, which culminated in getting to walk the track from the start/finish straight up to the Roggia chicane after the legendary track invasion had died down. Again, actually being able to walk the very tarmac on which the F1 drivers had been battling half an hour beforehand was an incredible sensory experience.

Anything not nailed down got pinched by the tifosi, including all the bollards at the first chicane that Rosberg had to negotiate when he relinquished the lead of the race to Hamilton, many of the Rolex and Santander advertising hoardings, and - most hilariously of all - the enormous polystyrene marker at the start of the DRS zone, which was being manhandled by a Ferrari fan at Porta Garibaldi station!

It was a fitting end to a hugely enjoyable weekend at Monza, a track to which I certainly hope to return in the near future. If you're contemplating going abroad to watch a Grand Prix next year, it's one I would urge you to consider visiting.