Mark Hughes: F1's Inside Line

Spa was a tougher weekend for Fernando Alonso off-track than on. With his role in the revelation of the 'new evidence' in the spy case being made public, he was portrayed as the 'blackmailer' of the team and his position within it claimed by observers to be 'untenable'. The reality is rather different.

Seeing him as a blackmailer is a perspective from outside the sport. He's not a conventional employee in a conventional business. He's a sportsman fighting his team-mate for the sport's biggest prize. There are rules of combat, and they are very different from those of the outside world. As Ron Dennis said at the weekend, all families bicker. "We are fighting for the world championship," he reminded everyone, "not having a bloody love-in."

Similarly, from a racing perspective the story that Fernando was offering his mechanics bonus money every time he beat Lewis was hardly the sensational news it has been portrayed. It's commonplace - just as is the transference of information from team to team. This is a battlefield, not an etiquette finishing school.

Yet Alonso could still be on his way out of McLaren - for reasons not to do with his row with the team around the time of the Hungarian Grand Prix, but which nonetheless do still relate to the spying row.

In getting involved in this and not simply allowing Ferrari's civil action to take its course, the governing body has set what seems a dangerous precedent. What about any future cases? They now surely have to be investigated too for the sake of consistency.

Similarly, what about if Ferrari's ongoing civil action were to reach a different conclusion from that already arrived at by the FIA? For the sake of its credibility, F1 now needs to tidy all this up, and Bernie Ecclestone has surely already set out to do precisely that - by banging some heads together. He might, for example, wish to bring the civil action to a close - with an out-of-court settlement. But at the same time he might want to contrive a way to reduce McLaren's swingeing fine.

While FIA president Max Mosley was keen to point out at Spa that a fine of $100 million simply brought the team's budget into line with those of its main rivals, he didn't point out that it was approximately a third of the sum for which Bernie Ecclestone bought from the FIA a 100-year lease of the whole championship a few years back.

Bernie would probably now like to resolve any conflict between the team's probable desire just to get on with racing and the likely difficulty explaining to the Mercedes board why they shouldn't appeal the fine - or even go to the civil courts. How might all these opposing pulls be resolved? And at the same time spice up Bernie's - sorry CVC Capital's - 2008 championship?

How about the following: McLaren agrees to relinquish its contractual hold on Fernando Alonso, and Bernie - with the cooperation of his friend and ally Luca di Montezemolo - places him at Ferrari, thereby fulfilling di Montezemolo's wish of a Raikkonen/Alonso dream team. In return, Ferrari drops its civil case.

McLaren becomes a less divided team, has its fine reduced and can forget the prospect of having to defend itself yet again in a drawn-out legal battle. The Mercedes board doesn't have to be convinced about why the company should contribute its share of a huge fine.

Alonso gets out of an environment where he feels uncomfortable and goes to the only place likely to offer an equally competitive car. An extremely exciting driver pairing of Raikkonen/Alonso would meet Bernie's wish to generate more interest and therefore money. Everyone would be happy.

Except current Ferrari incumbent Felipe Massa, who would be the innocent victim - and many were wondering last weekend why he and his manager's father visited the Toyota motorhome together.

But that would still leave a hole to fill at McLaren, alongside Lewis Hamilton. From Bernie's perspective, who would be the best candidate for that job? Whose recruitment alongside Hamilton would make for the most sensational, news- and interest-generating story?

Why, Jenson Button of course! That would create an arguably even more exciting pairing than the Ferrari one. Two Brits head-to-head in a potentially world title-winning car could take the sport to dizzying new heights of interest here and would still be an intriguing prospect for the wider world.

Given Hamilton's already massive reputation, Button - after eight years of frustration in less than fully competitive cars - would relish the prospect of being directly measured against him. And, knowing Jenson, he'd reckon he could beat him. Maybe he could, maybe he couldn't. But how fantastic would it be to find out? And which of Ferrari or McLaren would then have the stronger driver pairing?

There remains the small matter of Button's contract with Honda. In showbusiness there is always a way.