I'd bet Ganassi has Palou on lockdown short of a major payday by McLaren. Ganassi has been at this long enough to not let a star get snatched while under contract.
Right it's the same situation and the same thing is happening with a nascar driver too. It really comes down to does the team want a unhappy driver racing for them and their sponsor or will they settle for a buy out
In the case of palou it's also going to depend if his contact is just for Indy car or not. Wording is going to get very important..
Twitter is melting down and Zak Brown is in the middle of it because he's apparently tapped Piastri, O'Ward, Herta, Rosenqvist, and Palou for an F1 seat but nobody told Daniel Riccardo
The "places" that were saying that must have a short memory as I don't think Alonso left McLaren on a good note. You know with being a major conspirator of Stepneygate and then trying to blackmail McLaren into making him the #1 driver over a young LH. The fact that Alonso got off scot-free and McLaren took it on the chin for actions Alonso was very much apart of still irks me. It's why I still enjoy when he does poorly on track. As for McLaren, I sure hope Lawyers fees don't play into the F1 salary cap. They have a few irons in the fire on the legal side to say the least
Whitmarsh always spoke highly of Alonso even years after, and saw him as some sort of missed opportunity. Maybe he was Flonso's only fan at McLaren, but he erection has definitely not withered over the years. https://www.motor1.com/news/17098/whitmarsh-admits-alonso-loss-a-massive-regret/ https://www.autoweek.com/racing/for...-formula-one-team-would-want-fernando-alonso/ etc etc. I didn't know people were attributing him to Stepneygate? Only thing I remember was they found a notebook w/ J-damper stuff from an engineer that moved from Renault to McLaren, which was banned that year anyways.
May have been a Ron Dennis thing. As I recall it was reported by the UK MSM for F1 that there were in-car radio recordings between Alonso and his engineer discussing using the red team info. There was a code word they used for discussing that team. Also, it was reported that just before Alonso went into the investigation meeting with FIA he offered to lie to them if McLaren gave him assurances they would favor him as the #1 driver. It could've been Ron Dennis he said it to and to that person's credit he was unaware of the team having that data and told Alonso he better tell them everything he knows which Alonso did. Edit: Damn I didn't realize he went back to McLaren after, so maybe the current crew like him more. I still despise him and want him to be forced to go to Williams and languish before retiring.
So, is to0 much of a stretch to think it's possible that Alonso milked negotiations with Alpine, whom Alonso never intended on signing with, just long enough to pass some sort of deadline in Piasti's contract with Alpine which allowed him to become a free agent? Not sure how Piastri has 2 valid contracts at the same time, as is being reported, unless there is something in his Alpine contract that allows it and then for McLaren to basically sign him to an offer sheet. Sort of like an NBA restricted free agent offer sheet only with the player having the option instead of the original NBA team being able to accept the terms of the offer sheet to keep the player. Why would Alonso and team help Piastri? Could Alonso be positioning himself to become an F1 manager? There are relationships between Alonso, Weber and Flavio so is that a stretch MO?
Alonso is a conniving bitch so it's probably true. He and Flavio both should have been banished to kart racing years ago.
No $hit! All the team bosses keep singing Alonso's praises... no doubt because he has significant dirt on all of them.
Typical Hollywood. Always looking for a hot actress to drum up viewership for their movies. I mean, like F1 has hot chicks or something. Although I have no doubt Hollywood would probably cast Pitt himself to play Ecclestone.
I predict he'll end up 3 laps down, he can't hang with those boys. He tried it before and didn't do well.