sofaF1

Alonso's options keep narrowing. Now Red Bull are out the picture, what's left for him? Prodrive aren't going to be on the grid next year after all. Toyota have Glock and Trulli. Williams now have Nakajima. Surely it must be Renault? The hesitation in announcement can only be because he doesn't actually want to go back there, or that the contract they're offering doesn't suit him. I can't believe, as some people say, that he has a drive at Ferrari in 2009. The only reasonable option, then, is for him to take a year off. Could that ever work? Perhaps the more amazing story, however, is that Ralf thinks he might fit in at McLaren!

When was the last time you heard that? Yesterday?! What's going on?

Schumacher quickest in testing return

Surely he's not coming back? He must realise that if he'd been driving that Ferrari last year he'd have won the championship much earlier than Kimi, wouldn't he?

The last time a driver won the world championship with a number six on his car was x x years ago and it was Keke Rosberg. And this season the championship was won by A Finn, another Finn in Mika Hakkinen retired, and finally Heikki Kovalainen holds one of the keys to the driver market.

My favourite thing from the end of the season is to learn that not only do Kimi and Heikki get on but so do their fathers. Both of them race in the Legends series and are very good friends. They even watch most of the races together. They were sitting next to each other as their sons raced each other for the same piece of tarmac back in Japan. And in that case Heikki bested Kimi. It must have been an interesting moment.

Honda have scooped Ross Brawn away from Ferrari (who were apparently unwilling to make him Team Principal).

Finally Nick Fry has done something right.

Nick Fry will remain as Chief Executive of Honda Racing which is better for him. He can look after the money business and Brawn can look after the racing.

What will this mean, for Alonso? Might he too be headed for Honda?

I like certain racing drivers. Others I admire. And yet more I think are jerks or fools. And finally there are the drivers who I simply feel I don't know.

I think a lot of this year got sucked into the cult of personality. I think this was largely a reaction to the exit of Schumacher. Michael was a driver who had a certain reputation for being boring and he also seemed to not be a fan of being interviewed. And when he left Lewis arrived and that shook everything up.

People find it difficult to understand F1 at first glance. In football it's easy to spot a skilful play even if you don't understand much of anything about the game. But it's difficult to know all of the players in the premiership so people seem to mainly just learn the players from their team and remember the players who did something really exciting from the rival teams. In Formula 1 it's the opposite for most the sport is their team, and in fact the entire field of drivers and test drivers is around the same as a large squad: 33.

So personality is easier to latch on to. And because of that, and the influx of new fans we've ended up slightly skewed towards it.

Right at the last gasp there was a surge of popularity for Kimi. I think this was reaction to the personality wars going on over at McLaren. Kimi's lack of obvious personality (although I'm keenly aware of how the press are massively over playing this) seemed refreshing to many.

The point is that Schumacher's era did seem to be more about "I'll do my talking on the track" with only Jaques and DC really up for saying anything very interesting. But as the old adage goes, "be careful what you wish for". Now the rarity seems to be the aloof drivers who don't talk much. people like Kimi or Heidfeld spring to mind. Is their driving better because they are quiet or is it simply that it seems purer because it's easier to forget who is behind the wheel.

Eventually you learn with formula one that there are only four kinds of driver,

1) Drivers who were great
2) Drivers who were comically bad
3) Drivers who were world champion but not that great

and

4) Drivers you can't really remember.

But that's for the future looking back. For now we face a time where it's slightly more difficult to judge skill and achievement because everyone is watching the racing through the prism of personality.

Renault are being investigated for spying on McLaren in the 2006 season, when Alonso won his last title.

Will this put Alonso off returning to Renault?

F1 inspired Lawn Mower

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the Evening Standard to write something for them to do with the press and Formula 1. They didn't end up printing it in the end. Maybe I was too cruel. Let me know what you think:

F1 isn't normally about jingoistic pride. In fact teams only rarely have two drivers of the same nationality - none currently do. Formula 1 is in many ways closer to a global champions league than a World Cup. I am a fan of Formula 1, and I watch all of the races, but I don't have a team that I favour, I don't have a driver that I am always gunning for. I'm not unique in this, I want the best man to win on the given day. And sadly for Britain Lewis wasn't the better man on Sunday.

The press coverage has been downright despicable in both Britain and Spain. McLaren couldn't be more fair in their treatment of their drivers (they both even finished on the same number of points). And while Britain would like to point their hand at Spain, a large part of the tension was started by journalists here in Britain. When they created the impression that it was Lewis' God given right to win in Monaco. When he didn't make it a backlash was started against Ron Dennis, team principle at McLaren, which was simply intended to sell papers. The unintended result was the near wrenching in half of McLaren.

McLaren have always stood for equality, it makes it harder for them to win, but surely it is right. The constant demands for equality from the press here and in Spain forced Alonso's hand. He stopped supporting McLaren and it may well have lost Lewis the championship. McLaren could have asked Alonso to fall back and help Lewis to win in Brazil, but the relationship had been so soured by the press that there was no hope. Teams in Formula 1 should allow equality up until it is obvious that one of the drivers can't win. Massa helped Kimi, but Alonso didn't help Lewis. It wasn't just a difference in personality it was the bad blood. Who created that? Were the journalists reporting or creating the story?

Lewis made some rookie errors this weekend, but guess what? He's a rookie. And at least he beat his team mate. Sometimes in Formula 1 that's all you can do. And nobody expected it at the beginning of the season. They say the press in this country build people up simply so they can tear them down: Lewis is a prime example. Today Mathew Norman says that Lewis has, "quite a bit more to learn than any of us, most of all perhaps himself, had understood". I think that Lewis knew all too well that the world of Formula 1 is unpredictable and difficult to tame, if anyone had more to learn about the world of Formula 1 it was the press.

Bird completes Williams test

I return from my holiday to Rome and check SofaF1 to see if anything exciting has happened in Formula 1 and it looks like nothing much has been happening. In fact the most exciting thing that has happened in the world of Formula One is that one of the writers of the popular F1 blog has written a book (is that enough of a plug? No? I WROTE A BOOK BUY IT NOW!!!) but clearly nothing much in the world of F1. But wait a moment, what is this?

Alonso has left McLaren! Finally Ron and Alonso have seen sense and all is right in the world. But where will he go?

The rumours say that he'll go to Toyota if they can hire Ross Brawn. If that doesn't happen he'll go to Renault for a one year contract. But heikki has said he won't race as a number two.

This leaves Flav with a bit of a problem. If he signs Alonso for a one year contract and then after that year he leaves then where will Renault be? Nelson Piquet Jr. wanted to jump in Trulli's car by mid season so there's a risk he'll leave if Alonso makes him wait (surely Alonso wants Fisi back as his wing man).

There have been a growing number of rumours about Red Bull as a home. Perhaps it would fit, they've got the money and their car did seem to be quicker at the end of the season. I don't think Alonso has ever raced in an unreliable car (although I'm guessing the Minardi wasn't too hot) and so it would be interesting to see if the switch to Red Bull made the Red Bull more competitive or not.

Or perhaps he'll go to Williams. I'm sure McLaren would be happy to take Nico Rosberg off their hands. And although people are saying that Alonso needs a lot of money maybe that's not true. He just wants somebody to put faith in him. With Williams the faith would have to be reciprocal. If Alonso goes to Williams it will be the hand of Senna that will have guided him there.

But what do you think will happen? Comments please, and why not vote in the first pole of the 2008 season!