From a spectator’s point of view is Alonso joining Renault a good thing in the grand scheme of things?

It’s not an easy question to answer.

What it guarantees (hopefully, barring unforseen circumstances) is that the three best drivers are all going to be at different teams for the next year at least.

Unlike this year where Alonso and Hamilton were both at McLaren, next season will see Hamilton remain at McLaren, Alonso at Renault and Kimi at Ferrari.  Throw a BMW driver or two into the mix and perhaps a Red Bull and it sounds like it could be a good year of racing!

Now that Fernando Alonso has decided to rejoin Renault, the attention turns to who is going to be in the second McLaren next year alongside Lewis Hamilton.

It’s the only really decent seat left so I hope that Heikki Kovalainen gets a proper crack at attaining it - surely he is too young to be on the F1 scrapheap already?  I thought that if Renault really wanted Piquet Jnr in a race seat next year then Heikki would at least have been their test driver but it’s not to be.

It seems Fernando Alonso is being backed into a corner slightly over where he will be driving next season.

Assuming there is to be no contract breaking going on, then where can he go?

There has been much speculation on this which I won’t go over again, but basically he seems to have a realistic choice between Renault and Toyota - between a team who were once great and could believably be great again, and a team who has loads of money, but are unlikely to be great anytime soon.

There is also a vacant seat at McLaren, but that’s hardly a likely option!

What is a contract worth?  Anything or nothing?

It is meant to provide security for both parties - if you employ someone to do a job for you then a contract with them would provide peace of mind that they will turn up and do what they are supposed to, and from their point of view it ensures that if they do that then you are duty bound to pay them fr doing so.

In the sporting world though, contracts seem to mean diddly-squat and that doesn’t really seem fair on anyone at all.

Is Fernando Alonso’s future really as bleak as has been made out in Alan Henry’s column for F1 Racing magazine this month?

As viewers, we are lulled into a false sense that we know exactly what goes on even behind closed doors these days, but the truth of the matter is that only a select few are allowed access to the real behind-the-scenes stuff.

Journalists are of course privy to this access so I assume that we should take heed of what they say, but I have my doubts about Henry’s thoughts.