Formula 1 - The Eco Friendly Motorsport!

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Well I agree but lets be honest, Lewis is Ron's baby. Even if Alonso was the most nicest en obidiant guy in the world Ron would favour Lewis no matter what.

We saw the same thing when Haikkonen and Coulthard were racing at McLaren. If you rmember Haikkonen was Finnish, and Coulthard is Scottish. One driver was simply closer to Dennis and more successful. Maybe it's not that the driver that's closer to Dennis does better, maybe that the driver that does better gets closer to the boss.

Really though, it's pretty rich of Alonso to complain he's not being treated fairly, when he's been trying to blackmail McLaren into giving him preferential treatment all along. This pretty much means not just that he wanted to be treated better, but it's implicit that Hamilton should be treated worse, as nothing more than Alonso's support driver and for his own benefit.

Looking at the quality of the drivers, there's no doubt that Hamilton deserves the drive and the support of the team, and is just as good as Alonso. Sure, Alonso brings the kudos of being the world champion to the team, but he's also done a lot of damage to Mclaren's reputation and income, and has not intergrated well into the team. Hamilton has done really well, brought a lot of good publicity to McLaren and the wider sporting community, and made himself part of the McLaren team.

If McLaren had to choose one driver to get rid of, I'm sure there's many more reasons to get rid of Alonso than "he's not British".

 

[Kaotik]

It's not just about "being closer" in case of Hamilton, Dennis has personally(?) sponsored Hamilton for what, 10 years? in the lower series

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

It's not just about "being closer" in case of Hamilton, Dennis has personally(?) sponsored Hamilton for what, 10 years? in the lower series

So that means McLaren are sabotaging Alonso... because they won't force Hamilton to be Alonso's support driver?

Loads of teams run young driver programmes, and sponsor drivers up through the various racing classes, and some of them end up at F1. That doesn't mean that one of their own sponsored drivers automatically gets treated better than another driver that was sponsored by a different team and came across to them later.

But yes, you would expect that someone who has worked and got on with the McLaren team for ten years would fit in better than someone who comes from outside and demands preferential treatment via blackmail and damages the team's reputation. Problem with Alosnso is that he doesn't think he works for Mclaren - he thinks Mclaren works for him.

 

[Kaotik]

I think the key difference here is "teams" vs "Dennis" - Dennis has a clear preference of his own regardless of if rest of the team thinks the same, the different, or doesn't even care

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Loads of teams run young driver programmes, and sponsor drivers up through the various racing classes, and some of them end up at F1. That doesn't mean that one of their own sponsored drivers automatically gets treated better than another driver that was sponsored by a different team and came across to them later.

You cant compare Hamilton with that as he and Dennis have a total different relationship, its alot more personal as Dennis supported Hamilton personally and not like lets say the RBR young driver program which are alot of drivers scouted and signed but dont get any personal assistance or support.

 

[Dave Baumann]

At the end of season year McLaren were still undecided as to whether to put Hamilton in the car or not - they don't often go for rookies / young guys and they thought it might be risky putting him fresh out of GP2 due to the lack of experience, in a highly polished team. Once they decided to put him in, its pretty obvious that the script was supposed to be that Alonso would be the front runner while the rookie would make a few mistakes, but be learning from the world champ and possibly challenging him next year.

What they didn't bank on was both Hamilton and Alonso ripping the script to shreds.

At the start of the season Hamilton was showing a consistency that nobody would have expected of a rookie, and good turns of speed by the Canadian / US GP's, while Alonso was awesome in some places but all over the place in others (Canada) getting to grips with the McLaren and Bridgestones. During the early part of the year every statement you read from McLaren was at pains to point out what a good job Alonso was doing, to the point where they would sometimes downplay what Hamilton had done that race, even when finishing in front - we also have the little "park bench fatherly chats" between Dennis and Alonso early on.

But it would appear to be clear that Alonso, in the backgorund then, was pushing for more status in the team (he had already many comments how he felt under appreciated / not number 1 in the team) and that finally all reached a boiling point in Hungry where his demands turned into threats, and all the behind the scenes stuff finally was pushed right into the public eye.

From that point on, it should come as no surprise that Alonso not going to get anywhere in the team. By this point they also could see that it would be very likely that they could indeed build a world chamionship charge with Hamilton (lest we forget that he has actually been at the head of the points for the vast majority of the seaon). For his part, Hamilton played the game very well - following the short outburst on the radio, threatening to leave if he get balked laike that again, he's been 100% the "team" man; turning up to support his team at the FIA hearing, always mentioning what a great did the team has done on the radio and post session interviews etc.

 

[Davros]

I know with mclaren the team is everything whereas other tems my be driver centric mclaren are not
"drivers come and go but the team is eternal" is rons view
In fact if you sign for mclaren you have to agree that all trophies won are the property of the team you can get a replica made but the driver trophies belong to the team

 

[dizietsma]

For his part, Hamilton played the game very well - following the short outburst on the radio, threatening to leave if he get balked laike that again, .

Did he actually threaten to leave, I did not know that.

That's interesting if so because recently he dropped a heavy hint he might leave F1 if penalised over the Safety Car incident in Japan.

I hope this is not a sign that this is a person who always expects life to be perfect and served on a plate.

 

[Davros]

I hope this is not a sign that this is a person who always expects life to be perfect and served on a plate.

He's won everything he's ever entered - the true test of hamilton will be how he deals with things when times are bad

In fact if you sign for mclaren you have to agree that all trophies won are the property of the team you can get a replica made but the driver trophies belong to the team

ps: martin brundle actually said he pulled a fast one on mclaren and gave them the replica.....

 

[Bludd]

Max Mosley comes off as a complete tool:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63169
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63170

Jackie should sue his ass off.

 

[Davros]

No i think you should be allowed to call people certified halfwits

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Hmm .. for Alonso to screw McLaren in Brazil .. he'd need to take both himself and Hamilton out, thus giving the drivers championship to Kimi and Ferrari. That would piss Ron of no end.

I could see it happening as Alonso could blame the team for giving him under performing equipment which lead him to bump Hamilton out.

US

 

[JardeL]

I wrote this 3 days b4 but all gone , writing again ;

I'll not be surprised if we see a new " Schumacher - [SIZE=-1]Villeneuve " incident at Brasil between Alonso and Hamilton ...

BTW , Alonso will not represent Mercedes in 2008 season , according to F1 media ...
[/SIZE]

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I wrote this 3 days b4 but all gone , writing again ;

I'll not be surprised if we see a new " Schumacher - [SIZE=-1]Villeneuve " incident at Brasil between Alonso and Hamilton ...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]
What, so they both end up giving the title to Raikkonen? Unlikely.

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1] BTW , Alonso will not represent Mercedes in 2008 season , according to F1 media ...
[/SIZE]

There are rumours that he has signed a letter of intent to go back to Renault, but that Ferrari are the only ones who are going to stump up the $30 million he will need to buy his way out of McLaren's contract. That in turn will means Ferrari will have to pay Massa off, who will most likely go to Toyota.

However I can't see Alonso getting number one driver status at Ferrari against Raikkonen. it's not going to be easier at Ferrari up against Rainkonen instead of against Hamilton.

 

[V3]

[SIZE=-1]
What, so they both end up giving the title to Raikkonen? Unlikely.

I think from the point of view of both, that's the second best scenario. If Raikkonen retires, Alonso first and Hamilton second, I could see Hamilton takes out Alonso for the championship.

However I can't see Alonso getting number one driver status at Ferrari against Raikkonen. it's not going to be easier at Ferrari up against Rainkonen instead of against Hamilton.

Well, if he goes to Ferrari, we probably will see some more scandal next season

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I think from the point of view of both, that's the second best scenario. If Raikkonen retires, Alonso first and Hamilton second, I could see Hamilton takes out Alonso for the championship.

If Raikkonen retires, Alonso comes first and Hamilton second, then Hamilton still wins the championship by two points. Hamilton just needs to beat Alonso on the track, which is something he's done several times already this year.

 

[DJ12]

Well, if he goes to Ferrari, we probably will see some more scandal next season

He won't go to Ferrari.

We have seen how much he "enjoys" being challenged by his team-mates.

If he was as brilliant as Schumacher when he pulled all his tricks you could understand him wanting the best car, but Hamilton has shown that he just isn't that good.

Ferrari will stick with Massa (who seems to be a team player) rather than taking on king sulk and risk him dobbing them in about all the "secret" info they get from McLaren next season when they fail to make Kimi let him win.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Yeah, having the world champion is usually seen as a big advantage to a team, but there must be a lot of people looking at Alonso and seeing him as carrying a lot of liabilities too. And this year, he's shown that he's not the dominant driver in the championship, and that he doesn't know how to be a team player.

There's an interesting gossip/rumour article here.

 

[dizietsma]

A lot of teams are holding off signing drivers to see what Alonso does but Ferrari doing this now shows they want to keep Massa. What is the point of signing him now only to have to pay through the nose to get rid of him? They are not stupid.

So Alonso will not drive for Ferrari next year. Renault or Toyota are the only likely candidates.

For the GP this weekend it will be very interesting watching them go into the first corner if they are both on the same level of the grid.

This is the best climax in years to be honest, though shame it has had to resort to all the political baggage to make it so.

 

[Davros]

He won't go to Ferrari.

but Hamilton has shown that he just isn't that good.

.

I dont agree with that I think alonso is a great driver its just that hamilton is as well