A site that goes by the name of SportsYA.com have an interesting take on the future of the team from Woking.

Essentially the crux of the post states that Mercedes-Benz may purchase the McLaren team outright and keep hold of Alonso, leaving Lewis Hamilton and Ron Dennis to head off to the Prodrive project. There's a suggestion that this may relieve part the $100m burden the FIA imposed on the team and keep some key sponsors happy.

I've never heard of SportsYA before, and they don't quote any sources, so it's hard to say if this anything more than wild speculation.

It's not an implausible concept, but it would require that the ongoing customer car row be cleared up first. As grandprix.com detailed earlier today, Spyker have an arbitration case scheduled for next Tuesday to decide if Toro Rosso and Super Aguri have been running illegal customer cars this season. Should Spyker's complaint be upheld, it will not only cause problems for both the aforementioned teams, but also may prevent Prodrive from entering Formula 1 next year.

Whether or not F1 needs yet more controversy before the end of the season is open to debate, but this argument has been bubbling away since late 2005, so it'll be good to get clarification either way.

There's an awful lot riding on the findings of a three person panel in Switzerland next week.