29 Dec 2008

Alonso linked with Ferrari for 2011

8:50 am on 29 December 2008

The Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reports Fernando Alonso has a secret agreement to join Ferrari for four years from 2011.

The twice Formula One world champion has never hidden his desire to go to the Italian team and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo recently fuelled the ongoing speculation by refusing to rule out the Spaniard's future arrival.

The newspaper says the deal had several get-out clauses for both sides but added that Alonso could join Ferrari even earlier, in 2010, if 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen follows this year's disappointing season with another bad campaign.

Ferrari have Raikkonen and this year's title runner-up Felipe Massa under contract until the end of 2010, while Alonso's current deal with Renault also runs for two more seasons.

A Ferrari spokesman wouldn't comment on the reports, apart from saying: "We can only repeat that we have two drivers signed to the end of 2010".