| Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006 |
| Eff One |
F1's worst-kept secret laid bare: Ferrari confirm AlonsoJust popped up on Autosport:http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79061 Now begins the merry-go-round... |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Re: F1's worst-kept secret laid bare: Ferrari confirm Alonso
At least there are three new teams, so plenty of drives up for grabs. Hopefully not including Piquet, though. |
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| Eff One |
Re: F1's worst-kept secret laid bare: Ferrari confirm Alonso
Or Villeneuve... |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Re: F1's worst-kept secret laid bare: Ferrari confirm Alonso
+1!!!!! |
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| Big Blue |
Jacques Fucking Villeneuve?
No Hope; may drive for one of the new teams and have a pre-listed excuse of reasons for not finishing / being slow / crashing / being shit |
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| ALF |
Although I loved watching him race for the team, McLaren didn't seem gutted to lose him when he left, citing a poor work ethic. Weird move to take him back - except of course McLaren love the "two world champions slugging it out" thing and know it means more press coverage - and thus sponsorship dollars... | ||||
| Humphrey The Pug |
I take it you are talking about Kimi? Tina's Uncle's best friend was a mechanic on the McLaren test team, when they had a test team he was made redundant last year, anyway hearing recently Martin Brundle and Jonathon Legard on race weekends talking about how the McLaren mechanics loved working with Kimi and he would be welcomed back, I have heard nothing but negative comments from someone who worked closely with him, he said everyone couldn't stand working with him. |
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| Richard (ex-MB_insider) |
Indeed, McLaren had an option to retain Kimi for 2007 but instead chose to let the option expire. |
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| Big TC |
Well, it'll be a chance to see just how good Massa really is. He largely dealt with Kimi, who was regarded as the quickest guy out there, and will be up against the guy who is widely regarded as currently the quickest...
Similarly, Hammy against Kimi in identical cars should be interesting. Hammy should win that one. |
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| Eff One |
Depends which Kimi turns up. He is difficult to manage, and overall hasn't clicked with Ferrari, but if Mclaren can get the best out of him I doubt there's a faster driver in the paddock. I've been reading some interesting insider stuff from Ferrari, which suggests that ever since his future at Ferrari has been in doubt, his game has stepped up a notch. Apparently some of the telemetry data from the past five races beggars belief, the engineers seeing the car do things that shouldn't theoretically be possible. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Amusing comment in an email from a friend: if someone is "confirmed" at Ferrari, is it done by the Pope? | ||||
| ds240 |
pleased alonso has joined. Fed up with kimi work ethic, after the Schumacher years. Should be much more committed. Only alonso whinging at mclaren spoiled his reputation a bit. | ||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
What Ferrari have missed since Schumacher's retirement is the kind of driver who pushes the team: for all their ability, I don't think Raikkonen or Massa are that type person, whereas Alonso undoubtedly is. | ||||
| Big Blue |
Good point well made |
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| ALF |
I do rate Alonso but it's hard to say he's the fastest driver out there when he was bettered by a man in his rookie year. Even middling F1 drivers usually blow away newbies. He does consistently try very hard though, which is where he differs to Kimi.
What I await with baited breath is what massive indiscretion Alonso is loosely associated with at his next team. Is it coincidence spectacular cheating of a scale able to bring down a team seems to always have him buzzing around in it somewhere? We shall see... |
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| TimR |
I'm sure Ferrari have been up to no good for a while now - at least I get that feeling due to their, now open, special relationship with the FIA.
All that might stop if Ari Vatanen gets the presidency so there could well be a scandal with Alonso nearby 
Of course if Jean Twat gets the presidency I think Ferrari should be safe enough. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
I love the way people keep insinuating about Ferrari cheating, without ever producing a shred of evidence.
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| Mike Amos |
If JT gets the presidency they may as well just have twenty red cars on the grid and send the rest home or ban them for having the temerity to have a sh1t on race day or something. | ||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
(yawn) | ||||
| Eff One |
Not sure I agree with that - Alonso's year at Mclaren was something of an aberration, and he tied on points with Hamilton, didn't he? I don't think anyone, including Alonso himself, believes him to be the absolute fastest in any case. Over a single lap Hamilton and Raikkonen both probably have a tiny edge on raw speed. But where Alonso is peerless is in getting the most out of a car lap after lap after lap over an entire weekend without mistakes, in knowing what he needs from a car and setting it up accordingly. Supremely gifted as he is, Hamilton still makes too many mistakes and occasionally still gets lost on setup. He'll get there, but he's not there yet. I think Alonso will fit in nicely at Ferrari - Latin team, Latin drivers. If Ferrari and Mclaren both manage to build a decent car, 2010 is going to be awesome - especially if Mclaren manage to wake Kimi up and Renault give Kubica something to work with. |
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| ALF |
Hamilton does seem a long way away on setup at times - I wonder if McLaren hope for more experienced input from Kimi there. When I used to subscribe to Autosport they often mentioned this. As you say he'll get there, but he benefitted a lot from Alonso in his first year in this regard.
But I still think a lot of people took Lewis's first year performance for granted as soon as it was clear he was a superstar in the making. Trivia about being equal on points just doesn't matter - Alonso should have blown him away. Button did merely OK against Ralf - sometimes stellar (like at Spa) and sometimes right down near the back of the grid - in his first year and that was seen as a good performance - against a driver nothing like as good as Alonso, and not a multiple world champion. Lewis's first year was an utterly remarkable thing and to my mind is one of the reasons he appears more likely to be of the Senna/Schumacher mould than any other driver out there today. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
It certainly was: incredible to remember that some people thought McLaren were taking a risk, and should have put De La Rosa in the second car instead. That said, I think this year may be his finest season yet, as he's handled not having a front-running car with dignity and determination. And two well-deserved victories. |
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| Eff One |
No doubt about it, the fact that Hamilton managed to match Alonso in his debut year was remarkable. I was one of the pre-season doubters - it was clear enough that he was quick but from the information we had at the time, there was no way of knowing how he was going to handle the pressure of jumping straight into a front-running car with a world champion teammate.
I agree with Dr H that he's done himself great credit this year, Monza notwithstanding. |