So Fernando Alonso has finally left McLaren once and for all.

Even after all that’s happened this year I’m relatively surprised to be honest, as his best chance of being in a car capable of winning races and the title in 2008 was surely with the Woking team.  Ferrari’s announcement that Massa has been handed a new contract until 2010 has surely scuppered any chance of Alonso joining Raikkonen in Italy next year - that’s assuming Alonso would even have been happy being in the same team as the current World Champion.

This was being billed as a big weekend for English sport - first up today was the final of the Rugby World Cup, followed tomorrow by Lewis Hamilton striving to win the F1 World Championship.

Unfortunately, the first part hasn’t gone to plan, as the English were beaten in a pretty poor, nervy game by South Africa.  There wasn’t a huge amount of good flowing rugby played, and as seems to be the norm these days the emphasis was on kicking penalties and drop goals rather than winning by scoring tries.

It has been noted in the past that following revelations this season, McLaren have been issued with an FIA supervisor who is to oversee all their goings on this weekend and ensure that Fernando Alonso has a fair chance of winning the world championship ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

This is surely the most damaging thing the sport has seen this year, and that’s saying something.

To think that the governing body feels the need to take a proactive step to stop cheating, rather then the usual reactive step of punishing someone after they have broken the rules, is worrisome in my view.

For him to win the F1 Driver’s Championship, Fernando Alonso really needs to win the race and hope Lewis Hamilton finishes off the podium in fourth or worse.

On the last lap, with all that’s happened this year going through his head, what would Alonso do if the above scenario hasn’t played out in his favour?

Does he carry on, and go up onto the podium with Lewis to acknowledge that he was beaten fair and square?

Or does he park the car by the side of the track to spare his blushes?

Apparently Lewis Hamilton was taken aback at the driver’s meeting prior to last week’s Chinese Grand Prix - some of the other drivers had the audacity to make negative comments about the McLaren driver and his behaviour on the track.

Do these drivers have a genuine grievance or were they simply spitting the dummy because they are jealous of what he has achieved so far in his very short F1 career?

Well let’s have a think about what they may be jealous of…