Santander, a Spanish bank, has announced that it will be terminating its sponsorship of McLaren Formula One next year - a deal that, according to the German magazine Sport Bild is worth up to €25m per season.
It would seem that Santander's money has been well spent by McLaren as reflected in their results over the past two seasons - so why would Santander jump ship after only 2 seasons? Well, Santander's sponsorship of McLaren coincided with Fernando Alonso's signing with the team from Woking. Although, if you follow F1 you know that Alonso left after only one year to return to Reault from where he'd enjoyed two previous championships.
Driver contracts are easy, although expensive, to get out of. Corporate level sponsorship... not so much. I don't believe that the Santander contract specifically tied their deal to McLaren with an Alonso contingency, but F1 can be incredibly nationalistic at times and there is very little reason for the Spanish bank to be associated with a British team employing British and Finnish drivers.
Alonso, meanwhile, has been biding his time mid-field in a rather dull Renault. Similarly, Felipe Massa has been circling at or about the same grid locations in Scuderia Ferrari's fabulous F2008 - and his wet weather drive at Silverstone was embarrassing.
Ok, back to the Santander story line - not interesting news that some bank pulling their sponsorship? Well, what is interesting is where they are going - Ferrari. And from that, the implications of the deal seem to indicate that Ferrari have agreed a deal with Alonso for 2009.
Interesting... Alonso will leave Renault at the end of 2008 to become Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate in 2009. Two world champions at Ferrari!
Ferrari traditionally announces its driver line-up for the next season at the Italian GP at Monza, in September. But for now, all intelligence points to Alonso being fawned by the Tifosi in 2009. And Ferrari may well have signed Santander to pick up his €30m retainer.
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