Ferrari to confirm Santander deal at Monza

Ferrari have confirmed they will be announcing a major sponsorship deal with Spanish banking giant Santander at a press conference at Monza on Thursday.

The Italian squad will hold the conference with president Luca di Montezemolo and the president of the Spanish banking group Emilio Botin.

The new Santander partnership comes along with ongoing speculation that Spaniard Fernando Alonso will be making a switch to Ferrari for the 2010 season, although it is still unknown whether the Maranello-based team will be making an announcement regarding their driver line-up at Monza.

Ferrari has said that it will wait for more news on the likelihood of Felipe Massa's return to the sport next season before making an announcement, but it is also believed that the team is trying to offload Kimi Raikkonen to make room for Alonso.

Santander has been in formula one since the 2007 season when it signed a two-year deal with McLaren after the Woking-based team took on Alonso.