He would have been stupid not to move away from Renault. They were grossly underpaying him per most reports. From the Times when the last season began -
Flavio Briatore, his team principal at Renault, makes no bones about the fact that Alonso will not be showered with cash nor will he be able to hold the French squad to ransom. There will be none of the $30 million (about £16 million) salary that Michael Schumacher commands from Ferrari, nor even a shareout comparable to Räikkönen, his closest rival.
Even Ralf Schumacher — apparently getting about $20 million a year at lowly Toyota — is thought to be worth more than the champion. In fact, recent estimates say Alonso might be on as little as £3 million a year.
“Formula One is not a one-man band,” Briatore says. “We would never pay a driver big money to come to us. We don’t pay $20 million or $30 million for one man. There are 800 people in this company and everything they do is important to the result we get on a Sunday afternoon. Always I try to create a driver for this team, this business and, at the moment, we have the best driver for less money.”
