Alonso the key in looming F1 driver shuffle

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Formula One's so-called silly season is in full swing, with drivers linked to new teams for next year.

While Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen are confirmed at McLaren, the picture is less clear over at rivals Ferrari.

World champion Kimi Raikkonen has had his commitment questioned this season, with some commentators suggesting he will retire at the end of the year.

Raikkonen, who is contracted with Ferrari until the end of 2009, has repeatedly denied it, while team-mate Felipe Massa only last season signed a deal taking him to the end of 2010.

However, paddock rumors suggest that should Raikkonen decide to hang up his helmet, double world champion Fernando Alonso will gladly jump ship from middling Renault.

If that move does not materialize, other talk places Alonso at Honda.

"I think the team is definitely talking to Fernando," confirmed current Honda pilot Rubens Barrichello, who would make way for the Spaniard.

The veteran Brazilian added: "The conversations are there and I am talking to the team, I am talking to all the teams. I want to be racing.

"But, honestly, the day that I feel that I am slower than my first race is the day I will call it off and stop."

Alonso, who only has a one-year deal with Renault, has spent this season away from the title race after his acrimonious departure from McLaren over the winter.

Should he leave the Anglo-French outfit, the 27-year-old will be the hottest property on the market during the close season.

And with 2009 bringing such a huge change in the technical regulations, picking the right team will be crucial.

But Alonso was not shedding any light over his future, only confirming that staying with the team with whom he won the world championship in 2005 and 2006 was an option.

"I am reviewing whether to stay with Renault for another year, and why not?" he said to the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper ahead of his second home race of the season, the European Grand Prix at Valencia.

"I have been saying for the last three months that I will concentrate in the next three or four races on our crucial fight with Toyota.

"We will throw everything into the track to try to beat them. September, October, will be time to think about 2009."