Berger Reveals Alonso Will Drive for Ferrari in 2010

Former Toro Rosso part-owner Gerhard Berger revealed Alonso will surely drive for Ferrari in 2010. The Austrian admitted that he tried to convince the Spaniard to leave his place at Renault for the Toro Rosso cockpit a year ago – in order to replace departed Sebastian Vettel – but was kindly refused by the 2-time world champion. The news, however, comes from the fact that Alonso made it very clear he'd look at the 2009 year only as a transitional one.

Talking to German publication Sport Bild, Berger seemed in no doubt when naming Alonso's future squad. As argued by the former Ferrari-an, Alonso had already planned his 2010 season and nothing could have changed that in the meantime.

“Now I can say it: he was interested, but made it clearly understood that he saw 2009 only as a transitional year, because he already knew what he would be doing in 2010. Surely it's Ferrari,” Berger was quoted by the aforementioned source.

Although Alonso extended his deal with French manufacturer Renault for an additional 2 years at the end of 2008, he was heavily linked with a move to Ferrari in the following months. As both parties neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, it was reported that Alonso will finally join the prancing horse in 2011.

However, given the poor pace shown by the Ferrari F60 this year, added to the disastrous performances of the Scuderia's duo Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, Alonso will likely be called to Maranello a lot sooner. If such a move would happen from as early as 2010, the driver more likely to be replaced by Alonso would be Raikkonen, as the Fin had already announced his plans to leave the sport in short time.

In a poll conducted by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this year, Fernando Alonso was the most preferred driver by the Scuderia fans (by far, we might add), followed by Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa.