Departures leave questions for Ferrari and Alonso

The departure of two major figures in Formula 1 in a matter of hours raises many questions for Fernando Alonso.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo stood down after 23 years of service. Then Emilio Botin, the president of Santander, died suddenly of a heart attack on Tuesday.

Both were F1 fanatics to the core and had important relationships with Alonso. And both their exits could impact on the Spanish driver’s future.

Di Montezemolo’s departure is the second major change in six months at Ferrari, after Stefano Domenicali resigned as team principal. A major rebuilding operation is required there, and neither Marco Mattiacci (team boss) nor Sergio Marchionne (the Fiat boss, who has taken over as chairman after a public disagreement with Di Montezemolo), has much in the way of hands-on F1 experience.

Does this leave Alonso thinking the work that needs to be done will take longer than he thought, pushing him towards the exit? Conversely, the fresh leadership may encourage him to stay, given he was publicly rebuked by Di Montezemolo last year for criticising the car. New faces could make it more, not less, likely he will remain at Ferrari for the long haul, until they are a championship-winning team once more.

Alonso wants to stay at Ferrari and for 2015 and there seems not a great deal of doubt of that. It all depends on whether Ferrari, with the technical brains of James Allison, can execute a rapid recovery that is enough to stop Alonso being lured elsewhere. Equally, Botin’s untimely death raises a series of questions. He ran Santander like an autocrat, one whose passion for F1 led him into the sport with McLaren in 2007, when Alonso joined the team.

Will the board share his love for motor racing now he is gone? If they don’t, what does this mean for Alonso? And if they do, which direction or allegiance will they be keenest to pursue?

When he was at McLaren, Santander paid for part of his salary, and a similar plan would be part of any offer for him to return.

No one at McLaren knows what bearing Botin’s death has on Alonso, and in all likelihood the Spaniard isn’t totally sure himself.

If Alonso’s future did not already have enough question marks around it, it has a few more after the loss in quick succession of these two big beasts of the sport.