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.

 

[Kewee]

RasputinLives .... I've always had great respect for Ron Dennis, I just think he's cold and in the past has had dreadful skills when it comes to handling his drivers.

I'm the first to agree regarding Jenson's skills in car development. If you were to track back a few years, when people were posting criticism of him and calling his descriptions of his cars handling as making excuses, I was one of the loudest voices jumping to his defence by asking how the hell are they meant to develop their car if he doesn't tell them what's wrong with it's behaviour.

Some may disagree regarding Alonso's skills, my opinion is based on the opinions of those who have worked with him. Without exception, team principles and engineers from Renault, Ferrari and McLaren agree that Alonso is the best they've worked with regarding car development skills. We can always see a drivers race skill but development skills don't show visibly, development skills are measured with telemetry, all we see is a very gradual improvement in lap times when compared with other teams as they move from one GP to the next. That in itself makes improvements difficult to judge as we never see them on the same track more than once when the season is underway. The only real hint we get is during testing before the season starts and even then it would be an insult to the engineers to suggest improvements are mainly down to the drivers, clearly they are just a small part of a teams advances, though crucial never the less.
I'm sure Button and Alonso will share equal time in the car once testing gets underway.

 

[teabagyokel]

Fernando Alonso has never been in the best car at the last race of the season. If he is the best development driver, then the whole lot of them have no effect whatsoever.

I'm not saying I don't believe that Alonso has been instrumental in his cars' development, it just hasn't eventuated.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Actually that's a good point TBY - perhaps a driver has a greater effect on car development as the season progresses rather than the car they're effectively given at the start of the season. If we could measure the improvement of a team relative to the others over the course of a season then arguably this could give us an indication of the effectiveeness of a driver/pairing on car development!

 

[cider_and_toast]

The only way I could come up with any sort of measure was to look at the average pace of a team through out the season relative to the fastest team. That should show if the team gained or lost pace throughout the year. Then look at a teams individual driver pace and see if they are above or below their teams average line and then how that line relates to the gap between the fastest cars.

If the team average line curves away from the faster team then you can suggest that the slower team failed to develop the car. The second set of curves may give you some idea of pace development within that team.

 

[Incubus]

That's not necessarily the case though because once it becomes clear a top-team has no chance of a successful season they have a tendency to focus the bulk of their resources the following year's project.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Good point.

 

[FB]

Well I think Fernando is a knob. A very fast racing driver but a knob none the less.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Mind your bum FB, you'll get splinters sitting on the fence like that!!

 

[Kewee]

teabagyokel , rufus_mcdufus

As I said a few postings back it's not possible for any driver to develop a car that has significant flaws, which is what Alonso has often been confronted with. They may be able to make small improvements but that's about all. A driver needs a car with a decent baseline to work with, only then can engineers judge their development skills. We can only judge a driver based on the comments of those they work with, the team principles and engineers.

 

[The Pits]

This is the great thing about being a great car developer.

If the car is shit, its down to the designers.

If the car is great, take a bow driver. Unless you are Seb.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Keep posting that The Pits and I'll keep liking it.

There is zero evidence that Alonso is any better at car development than any other driver....

 

[teabagyokel]

Kewee - Since those people are in F1, I take their comments with mountains of salt.

My conclusion is that drivers' influence is negligible in general. Alonso doesn't need as quick a car as anyone else, but his career is not littered with either improving or dominant cars.

He has won 32 Grands Prix given that.

 

[Kewee]

True teabagyokel, but if we want to judge or form an opinion in an area such as car development where we can't actually see an immediate visual result the opinions of those people that work closely with the drivers are all we've got. This comment is not aimed at anyone in particular, certainly not you, but there are people who will always look for another box to tick adding to their reasons to discredit or dislike Alonso. For me personally, at the end of this current era when the present crop of top drivers such as Alonso, Button, Hamilton etc. have retired, I want to look back knowing I've appreciated and gained pleasure watching the best of their time, I don't want to spend my time bad mouthing any driver only to realise a brilliant era slipped by and I was too busy criticising to appreciate it. Cheers Teabag.

 

[Kewee]

Not that same old thing again...

There is no free testing anymore. Today's cars have sensors on their sensors. The phrase "car developper" is redundant these days, has been for some time.

The major flaw in that argument is sensors don't drive cars. Drivers are irreplaceable, try counting the number of drivers capable of getting consistent lap times out of an F1 car, and essential skill for testing and developing an F1 car.

 

[RasputinLives]

Whilst the majority seem to rate Alonso as a car developer Alonso himself obviously rates Pedro De La Rosa as he follows him around everywhere he goes.

Is he the real brains behind it all. Should Alonso really be saying "I bring 6 tenths to any car.......as long as my mate Pedro is there to help me"?

 

[Kewee]

RasputinLives ... The most recent official figures of drivers salaries published had Alonso on 25 million pounds and Pedro De La Rosa on 500,000. Maybe we should email Ron, are you suggesting he might be paying the wrong driver 25 million.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Half a million for being a Ferrari based tea boy and official play station operator is the sort of job I could do.

 

[Jen]

Even I can tell my garage when my car isn't on 'top form' - like the endless arguments I had years ago when every time I braked the car pulled to the left. They denied this - turned out that the recently replaced brake disc was warped!

All drivers, if they are vaguely aware, have an input - one would expect F1 drivers to be even more aware of their car's characteristics and to be able to recount any anomalies accurately.

Isn't that a form of development? Engineers build and repair, drivers drive - a car can look spectacular on paper (or in the garage) but it is only when it hits the track with a human in the cockpit is there any relevant feedback!

So all drivers can 'do development', in theory. Or failing that, just 'borrow' it from the other side of the garage!

 

[cider_and_toast]

I think we can all agree then, that if McLaren produce a poor car, it doesn't matter how good Alonso is at development, he's going to have a poor car.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is absolutely nothing to suggest yet how good (or bad) a car the McLaren Honda will be but McLaren need to massively reverse their downward trend of recent years and Honda need to produce an engine that can win races first time out.

 

[Bill Boddy]

McLaren did seem to improve during the latter stages of last season. Their design team has also been strengthened so next season's car may well be competitive.