They call it silly season for a reason! but the rumours hitting F1 this year seem to be much more frantic than usual. The key to this is Fernando Alonso.
Fernando is reportedly fed up at Ferrari's inability to build a championship winning car, They certainly haven't built a car worthy of his ability since he joined and he is worried that his career clock is ticking down.
However a lot of changes are happening at Ferrari that they believe will bring them closer to the top, but can Fernando afford to wait?
So what are his options?
If he wants a championship winning car, he'll need to to move to Red Bull or Mercedes, neither of which have a vacancy, unless of course Vettel wants to go to Ferrari? which has been rumoured for a long time, and of course if Red Bull want to break from their current system of promoting drivers from Toro Rosso and their young driver programme,
His other option is really McLaren who have made no secret of wanting a star such as Alonso to lead their challenge ASAP along with their new engine partner Honda. But after McLaren and Alonso parted on such acrimonious terms could that even be possible? And who knows if the Honda engine will even be as good as the Ferrari? It would really be an incredible blind leap of faith.
It seems in the last 24 hours a third option has emerged, With potential Sauber investor Lawrence Stroll now looking at buying Lotus instead and apparently willing to pay for the Mercedes engine deal, Could this deal see Fernando 'come home' to Enstone and a revitalised Lotus? This is the latest rumour and is probably the most unlikely as so many blocks would need to fit into place to make this work!
So after Fernando, what else could happen?
Is Jenson Button seeing out his last year as a McLaren driver? (Probably not if they don't get a marquee signing,)
Can Lewis and Nico continue as Mercedes team mates after falling out this year?
Could three cars really arrive and change the landscape of F1 and the driver market?
Has Vettel really lost faith in the team that bought him 4 consecutive world titles?
Only time will tell, and only one big name needs to move to start the carouselle, until then the speculation will continue!
