BUT the italian press, Gazetta dello Sport, had a similar story last week...

So if you take this idea that Alonso's entourage has been courting other F1 teams because the driver feels he's getting the short end of the stick from Hamilton's PR machine and support at McLaren, and put it alongside the story where Todt said would have nothing to do with Alonso so long as he was running the team, you have the basic whiffs of truth to the rumor.

Obviously, someone in the media was prompted to ask the question to Todt, "if Alonso were suddenly free mid-season, would you consider him"? Given that he'd already probably heard from Alonso's people, his sudden out-of-the-blue denunciation of the Spaniard makes sense.

All I can say is, the Civil War at McLaren seems to have a certain reality to it.

Mac.