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.

 

[Il_leone]

Was the Ferrari ever on pole in the dry compared to Red Bull or MClaren ?

 

[teabagyokel]

They weren't.

 

[Speshal]

I didn't used to like Fernando in his fractured Renault years, but I have come to admire his sublime driving.

 

[Fenderman]

I think Alonso's comments aren't that far off of reality. Using the "QWC" stat's provided by teabagyokel gives us a better guide to relative pace over the season. One could be pedantic and break it down further but our memories should be sufficent to tell us that certain competitors were in the ascendancy in the latter part of the season whilst Ferrari's improvement in pace tailed off relative to others. To make it easier to see I have re-sequenced TBY's final chart into the order of the final points. To see the complete original chart go to the Statistics forum.

You will note that Ferrari as a team wound up behind Lotus in 4th with Mercedes breathing down their neck. I personally think that the Ferrari was calmed down a bit so that Massa could get more out of it which was possibly detrimental to Alonso's more flexible driving style. To me it's analogous to the McLaren situation where a more twitchy car is better for Hamilton whereas a more stable, predictable but ultimately slower platform better suited Button's style. The Sauber wasn't too bad a package and it remains to be seen what it may have been capable of in the hands of the top four drivers of the season.

Anyway, to upsum, I personally wouldn't knock Alonso for stating what I see as essentially the truth.

Edited in light of sushifiesta interesting chart below.

 

[sushifiesta]

This plot from my development race article in the statistics forum may also be relevant:

From that I'd say Ferrari were well off the pace for the first few races then maintained the gap at around 6 tenths for the rest of the year. The main difference towards the end of the year, and what probably made it look like Ferrari dropped back, is that both McLaren and Red Bull were very competitive whereas for the rest of the year it tended to be one or the other.

 

[Fenderman]

... don't forget to deduct Alonso's 6 tenths ..

 

[teabagyokel]

Fenderman - May be worth producing the QWCC chart as well:

http://cliptheapex.com/attachments/CTA-png.5395/

 

[Greenlantern101]

I need a Pie Chart now.

 

[teabagyokel]

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Fenderman]

Considering the number of negative variables involved in scoring points in the WDC, i.e. DNF's, breakdowns, crashes, crappy pit stops, poor strategy, tyre issues etc, using the WDC as a guide to car performance is, I suggest rather pointless (excuse the pun). If we are trying to determine whether or not Alonso's perspective on where the Ferrari sat compared to the competition then the closest we can possibly get is through analysis of performance on those occasions when conditions and circumstances are as narrowly varied as possible. Using qualifying position and pace is obviously not a perfect method but that is when the circumstances are fairly similar for all concerned. Barring the odd mishap or impediment qualifying is when we would usually expect the engineers to have optimised the car and the drivers to get the maximum out of them.

I suspect the only way to get as close to an absolutely definitive result would be if it were possible to get all of the teams to tweet their telemetry traces for the entire season. Give Lewis a ring, perhaps he can organise it for us.

 

[gethinceri]

Mmmmm, pie......

 

[Kewee]

This is a big time Alonso bashing thread unfortunately. In answer to all the negative anti Alonso postings. Alonso made a damn good job of doing his talking on the track during 2012, something that seems to have gone unnoticed by most of you. No matter how you analyze the year, Ferrari was 4th or 5th fastest. Second in the championship for Alonso says it all. You can bitch and moan all you like regarding your distaste for Fernando but the result stays the same.

 

[Josh]

I think all of us know what Alonso is capable of and have a great deal of respect for his abilities, but I'm not sure how you can say with confidence that the Ferrari was the 4th or 5th fastest.

 

[Slyboogy]

He did more than his fair share of talking off the track too.

 

[Fenderman]

Well, Josh , Alonso's saying it and the charts posted above are implying it. Strangely enough, I am finding it very easy to say it. There I just said it again as I typed. That was a doddle.

 

[sushifiesta]

You have to be very careful though because Ferrari were most certainly a lot closer to McLaren and Red Bull in terms of race pace than they were in qualifying even if you remove reliability issues etc.

 

[mnmracer]

Alonso also said that he always extracted 100% from the car, which is factually incorrect. So Alonso's word, certainly in regards to cars he wasn't driving, is not the gospel of truth.
And all the charts above show is that on the day that no points are awarded, Ferrari was average around 3rd/4th fastest.

 

[Fenderman]

With respect,the charts are a representation of analysis carried out by fellow members of Clip the Apex, that give us a reasonable approximation as to the pace of the car and driver packages. So Alonso managed to extract enough out of the car to contend for the WDC right to the last. Fine. However, that took more than just the performance of his car to achieve. Even without trying to second and third guess all the "what if's" in the season he and his Ferrari had help, what with McLaren shooting themselves in the foot, Webber under performing, and lord knows what else. The bottom line is that his points scored in the WDC tell us his car was good up to a point but not how good. So when Alonso tells us how good his car is who the fuck are we to call him a liar?

 

[Kewee]

There were on most occasions 2 McLarens and 2 Red Bulls that were quicker than the Ferraris. That already makes the best Ferrari 5th on the grid. There were also numerous occasions the Lotus was quicker and sometimes also the Williams. I'll only factor in one Williams. Oh dear now the best Ferrari is 8th on the grid. It's not rocket science, and I hate to encourage you to have to be complementary to Alonso but the reason he was better than his grid position during most of the GP's was race craft. Most of the time his starts were superb, and his ability to measure a race, knowing when to attack and when to conserve gave him the results he needed.