Is Alonso the luckiest driver on the grid?

[ExtremeNinja]

I would suggest that Vettel, Hamilton and Grosjean had bad luck and that Alonso had no good or bad luck at all. He simpy drove a very good race.

[Edit] actually, a change of fortune due to circumstances beyond one's control is the definition of luck isn't it? So, yes. Actually he was lucky today. However, luck didn't make him finish the race any quicker. He just benefited from the bad luck of others. Did he deserve that luck? Of course he did. Did he deserve it in Malaysia? Of course he did. Did he deserve all of his results this season, of course he'd did. Did Vettel, Grosjean or Hamilton deserve to DNF? Of course they didn't.

This is developing as I type it but my final conclusion is that there is a distinction between luck and deserving.

Did Maldonado deserve to score points? Of course he didn't. Does he deserve to be in F1? Not by my judgement of how he has conducted himself since he has been here. I could go on...

 

[F1ang-o]

Made the best of the luck that came his way...

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Sorry for the massive edit above. A large development of my original post.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The way I see it you play the cards you are dealt.

The dictionary defines luck as 'believing that whatever happens, either good or bad, to a person in the course of events is due to chance, fate or fortune'.

The Buddha denied this belief completely. Everything that happens has a specific cause or causes and there must be some relationships between the cause and the effect. Becoming sick, for example, has specific causes. One must come into contact with germs and one’s body must be weak enough for the germs to establish themselves. There is a definite relationship between the cause (germs and a weakened body) and the effect (sickness) because we know that germs attack the organisms and give rise to sickness. But no relationship can be found between wearing a piece of paper with words written on it and being rich or passing examinations. Buddhism teaches that whatever happens does so because of a cause or causes and not due to luck, chance or fate. People who are interested in luck are always trying to get something,usually more money and wealth. The Buddha teaches us that it is far more important to develop our hearts and minds. He says:

Being deeply learned and skilled; being well-trained and using well-spoken words - this is the best good luck. To support mother and father, to cherish wife and child and to have a simple livelihood - this is the best good luck.

Now that's deep.....

 

[Fenderman]

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...very good

 

[FB]

I'm very unlucky as I've never won the Lottery. Problem is, I don't buy a ticket...

Anyway, maybe Lucy was lucky this weekend but who would argue that he doesn't deserve the win? I know, I know, some will but BOO! to them.

 

[Speshal]

To finish first, first you must be Finnish...

 

[soccerman17]

No such thing as luck. Its all odds. And Alonso just plays the odds well and makes the most out of what each race gives him to work with.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Surely there is such a thing as "Bad Luck". And it stands to reason that if one suffer's a stroke of "Bad Luck", someone else will benefit from this. There is nothing left to call this but "Good Luck".

And as I think I've made clear by my previous posts, just because someone enjoys a bit of "Good Luck", does not mean that they did not deserve to reap those rewards or that they aren't good enough to achieve that result without benefiting from someone else's misfortune.

 

[sushifiesta]

Ferrari may not have the best car, but their race pace has been pretty decent, they have made very few strategy or pit stop errors and the whole team seems to be united and up for a fight. Alonso always gets the most out of a car, and Ferrari have given him a very solid platform to work with, albeit not the fastest but fast enough to be in the right place to benefit from the self destruction of others due to dodgy pit stops or car failures etc.

Alonso benefited massively from the safety car yesterday and the rain in Malaysia, these you can consider good luck. But overall Alonso isn't lucky, he's just bloody good. You could even consider him unlucky not to have won more than two championships.

 

[FB]

Or a bit of a noob for crapping in his own nest at McLaren...

 

[Slyboogy]

Well I do think he is a bit lucky.

Some may say it's because he's great or what not. That he is, but other drivers on the current grid are great too.

He does seem to inherit victories a lot, and this year, despite his car being bad (not as bad as made out to be), he's probably got lucky in most of the races, bar Bahrain and Canada.

2 years of him in his prime got wasted at Renault? That was his own doing, rather than anything else.

I do think he's the luckiest driver on the grid. Doesn't mean I disrespect him, not acknowledge how great a driver he is, nor discredit his accomplishments.

 

[Incubus]

Going by the OP's logic, then you could say Alonso was pretty unlucky his time made the mistake of judging it unnecessary to send out on a set of supersofts on Saturday in Q2, hence missing out in Q3 to begin with.
We will never know what Alonso's pace would have been relative to Vettel after he passed Grosjean and got himself into second because ovsiously that one was over before we knew it.
What do know though was that he started elevennth after quali, made another great start, passed a few cars. One key to his race was that after the first round of pit-stops when he rejoined behind a queue of cars that hadn't pitted he was much more incisive in slicing his way through them than the rest of some of his WDC rivals he was then in the same group as. He passed something like three cars in one lap in that period didn't he?
After the re-start he passed Grosjean on the outside ofturn One and immediately watched Vettel depart.

When you think about the way races have been this season it seems to me just about one of the hardest-fought wins so far.

I don't really believe in luch at all. Doesn't mean anything, and especially not in a team sport. When someone in a race suffers problems, it's always as a result of someone somewhere not doing their job as well as others, be it drivers, engineers, mechanics, pit-crew, production staff, factory employee, or whoever. If it happens as a result of someone else on the track, some are better at not getting involved than others.

 

[Slyboogy]

But he had newer sets of tyres after that mistake by the team, which certainly helped to victory

 

[Incubus]

That was probably down to his much-famed racing bran, that made him subconsciously miss out on Q3 deliberately so that he would enjoy a spare set AND the benefit of an afternoon siesta, which loads and loads of scientists have proved the benefit of when it comes to maintaining a good racing brain.
With all that in mind, they were never going to beat him.

 

[Olivier]

He was admittedly lucky this time since he inherited the victory from Vettel, but he was in a position to take advantage of it. Barcelona, Monaco and Canada are races where he could have used a little bit of luck and the team a lot more of focus to realize Alonso needed to stop earlier, later and again (for tires).

 

[teabagyokel]

OK, so the top two retiring with an alternator failure, and a Safety Car helping out is a one-off. I'll grant you that. Seems lucky taken in isolation. However, just consider how often Fernando Alonso gets in a position - in an inferior car - to take advantage of that luck.

He was last in a car that was challenging the top for pace in 2007. He's won 10 Grands Prix since then! From only 3 pole positions (one of which was a Renault low-fuel glory run).

He's just a fantastic Grand Prix driver, Foaad, as is Sebastian Vettel, as is Lewis Hamilton.

 

[Incubus]

OK, so the top two retiring with an alternator failure,

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Alonso had passed Grosjean way before his alternator failure hadn't he?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

He was getting closed down at quite a pace, too. That, after being put in front of him by the safety car. I would not have expected Alonso to finish in front of Grosjean. Not to take anything away from Alonso but the race conspired against Grosjean twice and the second time it was fatal.

 

[Incubus]

He was actually losing ground on him wasn't he? In the first few laps after the safety-car Grosjean was right on Alonso's tail, then FA began edging away, though not by much but outside of the DRS zone, or more than a second anyway.
Having said that tyre wear in the last few laps would have played a role and as Raikonen showed the Lotus is still likely to finish stronger than other cars.