Deposed world champion...

Deposed world champion Fernando Alonso is lining himself up for a shock return to Renault next year.

With Felipe Massa re-signing to Ferrari until the end of 2010 and Kimi Raikkonen secure until the 2009 season is over, a much mooted move to the Italian squad was ruled out for the Spaniard last week.

Instead, McLaren and Renault are working on a swap deal that would see Alonso return to the team that ran him to his first two world titles.

Finnish rookie Heikki Kovalainen would switch to McLaren to partner Lewis Hamilton. The move by Alonso could then trigger a series of driver swaps. Renault has so far refused to re-sign Giancarlo Fisichella, and is believed to be assessing third driver Nelson Piquet Junior for a move to the race team in place of the veteran Italian.

Although Alonso has a contract with McLaren, he is believed to be negotiating his release from it due to a breakdown in relations with team chief Ron Dennis.

After finishing third in Brazil, the Spanish star revealed: “You have ups and downs. You have better moments and worse moments and I think, as everyone knows, this year I had some difficulties with the team. It’s not a secret, but at the end we tried to work together as hard as we could and we arrived at the last race fighting for the title.”