Current Fernando Alonso

Suprised there's no thread (although I had one for his blogs), so i'll start off:

A double world championship vs Raikkonen and then Schumacher in 2005 and 2006 respectively elevated Alonso's status but, apparently, no one told his rookie teammate at his brand new team of a theoretical 'pecking order' the following season ... and the Spaniard was 'seen off' by the young Englishman, Hamilton, into two years of Wilderness while both Hamilton and an even younger Vettel began to make their mark through '08 and '09.

Arguably, Alonso was in the Top 3 of all the Formula One 'Aces' in the 2000s following Hakkinen's retirement - up there with either Schumacher/Raikkonen and, then, Raikkonen/Hamilton - and remains so in the early 2010s along with Hamilton/Vettel...with only Kubica knocking on the door until the Pole's horrible Rallying accident.

A question mark initially over 2004 during which Trulli lead him in the standing until the Italian fell out with ex-manager and team boss Flavio Briatore (Alonso's then business manager) under dubious circumstances after the French Grand Prix.

Another question mark is...Who has progressed more since the end of 2007: Hamilton or Alonso?

A fan. Then came the unfortunate blackmail allegations against McLaren boss Ron Dennis on the morning of the 2007 Hungarian GP which came to light at the highly costly FIA 'Spy-Gate' hearings before Spa...followed by the odour of the deliberate crashing of the Number 2 Renault car at Singapore in 2008 which lead to Alonso finishing 1st in the event and ended in the banning of Briatore and Pat Symmonds a year later.

2009 was a poor year with 'Nando's' mind likely on the prospect of Santander paving the way to better prospects at Maranello one year earlier.

2010 was a fresh start at Ferrari (who no longer had Schumacher walking through the premises regularly) but first half season mistakes ultimately cost him a title inspite of being infamously aided by a Team Orders switch w Massa at Hockenheim (which lead to more world-wide criticism).

Relatively fast, relatively consistent but prone to mistakes and a possible insecurity complex (*) based on wanting sole focus from a team and being only happy with a Number 2 in the other car running behind him. Anything else and it seemingly rattles him.

(*) This is my own personal opinion.

..and so to 2011...

He's underperformed only at Malaysia (hit Hamilton) and China (invisible while Massa challenged McLarens and Red Bulls) and, arguably, Canada...but has maximized his chances in the other 6 races culminating in the British GP win.

He said in his post-Monaco blog that 'Silverstone would be the WDC cut-off'...and so, after some major upgrades, the Ferrari looks a winner again. It might be too late for 2011 given Vettel's finishing rate...but the 2012 regs means they should keep the hammer down at Maranello.

He's signed on through to 2016...So hopes are high of a WDC at some juncture...but not yet.
 
sushifiesta ..... I think Alonso has just sucked it up, Ron Dennis probably didn't want to loose his input regarding car development. Sometimes drivers have to put up with bloody stupid opinions from people who should know better, I think Alonso's response to Herbert was a mix of annoyance and humour. Not much in it really.
 
Well exactly. That only made his article look even more baffling, especially considering Alonso and Dennis. rightly or wrongly tried to persuade the FIA to let him race even after FP2 had already been run.

I hink there's a slightly wider picture there, which is that Sky journalists are always under pressure to come with a story - any story - with an attention-grabbing headline. Hence you end up with an F1 site whose main page is made up of only 20 per cent of material that actually reports on something that could be classified as actual news and the rest is just generic confabulatios and debates about the same old recycled topics with a slightly different twist on them each time.

Sky's main F1 page looked visually daft the other day. There was the Hebert article as the main headline, immediately underneath was "Alonso: I want to race", and by the side another two smaller headlines about Alonso. That's a lot of space devoted to a driver who won't even be racing this week-end! Every week there seems to be a story on "Alonso to race on", Alonso could retire", which is a bit much considering he never even commented on his contract himself other than to say he will see it through. Then there was Rosberg who apparently is "the Leicester City" of Formula One., and other daft headlines with no actual info within it.

It all gets a bit daft...
 
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I don't think anyone's forgetting but that doesn't make any difference. Questioning a drivers motivation because he's accepting an FIA medical ruling is unfair and stupid. Herbert wouldn't have been privy to the talks that took place between Ron Dennis and the FIA so he wouldn't have known how much Dennis and Alonso tried to have the ruling overturned. Jonny Herbert just didn't appear to be thinking very clearly when he chose to sound off, all his comments in the article leave that impression.
 
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Well exactly. That only made his article look even more baffling, especially considering Alonso and Dennis. rightly or wrongly tried to persuade the FIA to let him race even after FP2 had already been run.

I hink there's a slightly wider picture there, which is that Sky journalists are always under pressure to come with a story - any story - with an attention-grabbing headline. Hence you end up with an F1 site whose main page is made up of only 20 per cent of material that actually reports on something that could be classified as actual news and the rest is just generic confabulatios and debates about the same old recycled topics with a slightly different twist on them each time.

Sky's main F1 page looked visually daft the other day. There was the Hebert article as the main headline, immediately underneath was "Alonso: I want to race", and by the side another two smaller headlines about Alonso. That's a lot of space devoted to a driver who won't even be racing this week-end! Every week there seems to be a story on "Alonso to race on", Alonso could retire", which is a bit much considering he never even commented on his contract himself other than to say he will see it through. Then there was Rosberg who apparently is "the Leicester City" of Formula One., and other daft headlines with no actual info within it.

It all gets a bit daft...

Even though I watch their F1 coverage, I stay away from Sky Web sites for catching up on the news as it's nothing but a little bit of news with our advertising partners!

Either that or the distracting links in the Article to find out where 11 washed up Hollywood actors are now working....
 
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^^^ I think this may be one for an extremely rude indeed caption competition. Alas even I couldn't possibly contemplate his particular one. :blink:
 
Seeing it from that angle makes you realise how close Rosberg came to being hit head-on by the pack behind him. that could have been really quite nasty.
 
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