Alonso Interview On Hamilton And Vettel

Viscount

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I think Vettel's 2012 season will be most akin to Prost's 1987 season, with Button and Hamilton as Mansell and Piquet, Alonso as Senna!

As Alonso says in the video below, we haven't really seen Vettel winning when he's not in the best car yet, and I don't think Red Bull will have the best car this season. If the cars are closer Vettel will be racing a pack of cars on track rather than mainly himself and the stopwatch and if the drivers around him such as Hamilton, Button or Alonso are on form in comparable or better cars I don't think Vettel (or any of them) will be able to dominate. Plus there may be other teams fighting at the front like Lotus or Mercedes making things difficult.

 
Worm feast. That's the first time I've used the bookmark feature. :)

This might get to 200 replies before the Lewis Hamilton thread.

That is a pretty heavy dissing Fernando is giving Sebastian and a pritty big heap of praise to Hamilton, mind games or not.
 
I don't think he's really insulting Vettel I just think he means that Hamilton hasn't always had a competitive car at McLaren but he still managed to get great results without one. Whilst Vettel during his time at Red Bull has always had a competitive car (albeit sometimes unreliable) and has produced great results with it, but as we haven't yet seen what he can do in an uncompetitive car Alonso can't judge him on that yet.

He does say, "they're the two most talented drivers on the grid now", and I don't think being considered one of the two most talented drivers on a grid of multiple world champions is a bad thing.
 
I am certain that there will be a lot of people reading all sorts of things that Alonso did not say.
Well, I'm not doing that. He was very explicit in expressing a particular view. Just saying that you have to question why he would even make such a statement. Maybe just because he was asked, but he had a choice not to answer, too, or to answer more evasively. I think he feels it's in his interests to project that opinion or view to the world at the moment.

That's all I mean and what I think, but I'm just expressing a half-baked opinion.
 
I have to say I agree with Alonso on this.

I think many will point to Italy 2008, however as much as Vettel was brilliant that Toro Rosso was actually rather good. Not to mention many of the 'big players' making stupid choices in qualifying and come Sunday they were out of the equation for the win. Only Kovalainen could have, and should have challenged Vettel for the win but I think most people will recognise that although Kovalainen is certainly no bad driver he isn't 'ace' material.

Hamilton has shown on a number of occasions (as has Alonso) that he can win without the best machinery. Just look at Singapore 2009, China 2011, and Germany 2011. Alonso has won without the best car in Singapore 2008 (just kidding! LOL), Japan 2008 and Singapore 2010 to name but a few. I try to think when Vettel hasn't had the best car and has won a race but I honestly can't think of any, only Italy 2008 comes to mind but I have explained my reasoning behind not counting that.
 
I agree that Vettel has not proved himself in a bad car but no doubt he won't always have the best car/team in the future, so I shall wait and see.

As to my point about Alonso not being in a position to question Hamilton's ability without looking foolish, that still stands.
 
There will always be people who put words in Alonso's mouth, or maybe a better way of putting it, hear things they imagined he said. I think Alonso's straight forward enough, some would say blunt, to say what he means and mean what he says, that is after all the very thing that gets him offside with some of those who follow F1. I didn't hear anything he said then, that hasn't been said by numerous fans as well as others. Nothing he said was insulting or even critical, just simply the truth.:thinking:
 
Fiat-
-first you say the Toro Rosso was "rather good", then go on about Hamilton showing he could win "without the best machinery". In my book, "rather good" can NEVER equate to being "the best machinery", so obviously Vettel can win in machinery that isn't the best.
 
Putting the comparisons to Vettel aside, I think what Alonso says of Hamilton's previous years are so true and people have forgotten this due to the frustrations of last season. I genuinely believe Lewis has never had the fastest car on the grid for a consistent period. 2007 and 08 Ferrari had the edge. 2009-11, not even close. What Lewis has done previously and even last season without "the competitive car in the hands" is truly astonishing. If I was a driver on the grid, I would fear the idea of Lewis being given the fastest car more than anything.

Also, I'm enjoying this new found mutual respect between Hamilton and Alonso. I so hope we get another chance to see these two fighting it out for a title.
 
As for Sebastian Vettel, clearly he is a great driver, capable of doing what only a few drivers can in F1, winning races in not such quick cars. My point on Vettel up until now has always been, let's not get carried away. We have seen so few races so far where the 3 drivers can be compared. We can look at Spain, China, Germany, Korea between Hamilton and Vettel from last year, but even they only gave us a glimpse of the two fighting it out. Spain and China were probably the two most intriguing. This is part of the excitement of F1 though. No good saying a driver is the class of the field after a championship where no one could get close to the car, let alone the driver. I fail to see how people don't understand that it isn't physically possible to drive away from drivers like Lewis and Fernando in the way Vettel did last year, purely on driving skill. Those guys are so close to perfect, that claiming Vettel averages half a second quicker is ludicrous.
 
Maybe Brogan will post an updated version of his sequence of right turns by Vettel. Maybe he could add the start of the Japanese GP last season.
 
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