Today it was (not officially) announced that Mercedes has given McLaren permission to drop Alonso at the end of the year. This has been a big issue with McLaren and Mercedes, because on the one hand, keeping an unhappy driver is never good for a team, and to let him go freely, only to have him go to their main rivals (Ferrari) and then have him come back and defeat them next season, well, that would be embarrassing and costly.

To that end, conspiracy theorists will point to the fact that Mercedes' announcement came right after Ferrari announced yesterday that Felipe Massa's contract has been extended until 2010. The assumption is that with this extension, McLaren and Mercedes have been reassured Ferrari's line up is set for at least a couple more years, so if Alonso leaves McLaren he would have no choice, but to go to a lesser team not capable of giving McLaren much competition.

But, the 81-word press release announcing Massa's contract extension was vague to say the least. Certain elements of the release never mentioned whether Massa would actually drive for Ferrari as opposed to test for Ferrari. In fact, Ferrari did see it necessary to mention that Massa has been 'contracted' with Ferrari since 2001, but from 2001 to today, Massa has only driven for Ferrari this season and last. During those other years he was on loan to Sauber and used as a test driver. So, what if Ferrari's plan is to once again make Massa a test driver or eventually loan him to another team? This would make room at Ferrari to sign Alonso in his place for the next couple seasons.

This would give Ferrari the most potent driver lineup since Senna- Prost, and one less driver as a competitor to really worry about. Add to that the fact that Alonso is hellbent on getting his revenge against McLaren, and Ferrari's chances look pretty good in 2008 and 2009.

Having said that, I still don't by this theory. I think the timing of the two announcements is purely coincidental, and the fact that Ferrari's press release was only 81-words is probably due to the fact that extending Massa's contract isn't really a shock. In other words, why blab about the obvious?

But, then again, if the conspiracy theorists are right and Alonso does win the championship next season in a Ferrari, man, would that be egg on the face of McLaren and Mercedes.