F1: how many cars does Ferrari plan to run next year?

The scene is increasingly looking set for Fernando Alonso to go to Ferrari next year.

This week, Spanish Bank Santander announced that it had entered into a five year deal with Ferrari. They went to McLaren with Alonso and got left behind when he debunked back to Renault. But the draw of a Spaniard in a Ferrari would be too much to miss out on.

For the past several months, rumours have surrounded Alonso's future at Renault. But it happens whoever he drives for as he has a history of petulance and threatening - or at least hinting - that he'll leave if his cars don't improve.

There have been confirmations and denials of an Alonso move to Ferrari depending on which blogger or even mainstream journalist one believes.

The fact is that Alonso is still under contract at Renault. The conflict of interest between Flavio Briatore's role as Alonso's manager and principal of the Renault team.

But the whole Renault team is under a cloud: it now appears that the allegations that Piquet was ordered to crash to secure a Singapore win for Alonso last year did not come from Piquet as was reported by a number of sources when the story initially broke. But let's be realistic: Piquet crashed well over a dozen times. Surely no one is going to say they were not accidents?

There were, at some point, rumours that teams might be allowed to run three cars next year. That was when it was feared there may not be enough teams to make up a grid. And since then BMW have dropped out, and rumour is that, if Renault is found guilty of race fixing and a serious penalty applied, they may leave, too. There are also continuing rumours that Toyota is considering following BMW's exit route.

But Massa will be back next year. Fisichella has gone to Ferrari, after his fantastic performance just two weeks ago. He will stay there next year. If Alonso does go then it's a reasonable bet that Raikkonen will be on the market.

Certainly, McLaren have said they will not say who will partner Hamilton next year : there are just to many possible options.

Max Mosely - who is supposed to be standing down next month says that the three-car-team option is no longer needed.

But if it goes ahead, Ferrari might just find themselves with an embarrassment of riches in the driver department.