While the “big” announcement on Fernando Alonso is now after the Renault ruling expected anytime soon, there were some other interesting developments elsewhere over the past few days.

The Jerez tests were kind of a shoot out for the Force India seat. There are no clear winners yet, but there is one obvious looser - Ralf Schumacher. Even he himself now admits, the Jerez outing might have been his last appearance in Formula 1 car…

Unlike Ralf, the other serious candidates - Fisichella, Liuzzi and Klien - did not do themselves too much harm.

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F1Wolf

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Flavio Briatore’s Tuesday deadline has passed without any announcement. But there are some whispers around the things are moving towards one year deal with an option and some performance criteria - not for Alonso but for Renault.

There is not exactly a long line of suitors that would interesting for Alonso, so he may be inclined to such a compromise with Renault. Spanish paper Marca allegedly suggests Alonso and Renault are only days away from a deal. The rumours are (rumours !) that Alonso will be free to leave Renault after a single season if the team fails to meet certain minimal performance and results criteria.

The Guardian goes even further saying Briatore is close to finalising the sponsorhip deal with a consortium that includes Telefonica to finance USD20 million a year deal with Alonso. Alonso and Renault were last night allegedly already close to agreement on such a deal.

The papers further speculate that Fisichella has been told there is no room for him in Renault next year, that Kovalainen will now move to McLaren and Nelson Piquet Jr. will partner Fernando Alonso. These are however pretty logical conclusions that anybody would make once Alonso’s move to Renault is confirmed.

Did Frank Williams know more about all this before he came out with his Williams team drivers line up confirmation for 2008 ?

So let’s enjoy the rumour mill while it lasts and wait and see what next few hours or days will bring.

F1Wolf

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Flavio Briatore confirmed 2 things today. First, that he offered a seat in the Renault team to Fernando Alonso, now free from McLaren. Second, that Fernando Alonso would like to commit himself only for 1 year, likely to be free when several seats become available in 2009.

Briatore however is not interested in a year long deal.

“I know how much he can still give Renault, but an agreement for one year would have no sense with an outlook projected for a period of time.”

He offered Alonso chance to return to his old team on a long term basis:

“Let’s see what happens from here to Tuesday. I have presented a project for the future to Fernando. If his desires coincide with ours, it can happen.”

Not sure what the “Tuesday” in the above statement to Gazzetta dello Sport means, deadline for Alonso to make up his mind?

What would his move back to Renault mean to the current Renault drivers Fisichella and Kovalainen ?

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F1Wolf

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