While Alonso has been told by Ron Dennis that he can leave the team at the end of the year. Lewis Hamilton also has been asked by Ferrarri to sign over to them next year for just under £20million.

While Lewis has wanted to drive for Mclaren for most of his life, the controversy surrounding the Mclaren team at the moment may be a good enough reason to have him thinking twice. Of course if Hamilton keeps up his winning streak in this years F1. I don’t think £20million will be anything but the first of many offers.

Nigel Mansel has been in the papers commenting that he thinks the war of words in the press will only put the sport in a bad light and could ruin Hamiltons career just as it begins. He also believes the money men behind F1 are favouring Hamilton and hence there have been some odd judgments:

He said: “I’m not sure how long Alonso was in the pits but I’m lost for words how you can just demote someone five or six places on the grid.

“I have never seen anything like this in the history of the sport – it’s such a great shame. I do have some sympathy for Alonso, no question.

“If they wanted to fine him or do something else all well and good, but what are they doing demoting him and ruining his race?”

However Mansell is a fan and he supports Hamilton wholeheartedly. He voiced his concerns only with the sport’s governing body.

He said: “They have got to be very careful.
“I’m a huge fan of Lewis but people in the street are saying to me ‘why is everyone favouring him’?

“Let’s not forget what also happened at Nurburgring when they let him stay in the car, lifted him up in the car and put him back on the track before letting him un-lap himself.

“I’m definitely backing Lewis 100 per cent by saying that all this has nothing to do with him.

“He is a great driver who has won all his races and got all his points by fair means. But people are asking: ‘are the powers that be trying to fix it for him’? I think it’s terribly sad.”

How much money is riding on the Hamilton wave of success? Its really sad if “the powers that be” can actually have this amount of influence.

What’s more likely is that while the press are as usual behaving as badly as they want to, the FIA are not likely to be swayed by public opinion and I imagine they are more likely to be annoyed with Mclaren on the whole and care a great deal less about Mclarens in fighting.