Lotus Formula One team may be plotting bold move for Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso | Autoweek
At first I thought it was goofy but then I realized that Lotus will have MB engines next year and with Stroll money, they could be back where they were last year. Not an insane idea. I'm still leaning more towards McLaren/Honda but Lotus/MB might not be such a bad ticket after all. If they land Stroll's money, I wouldn't be surprised to see them pass the red cars next year. What speaks for Lotus is that the MB engine is proven to be the fastest. Honda is still a big unknown and everybody seems to say they need at least one year to get to the top (where I'm sure they will end up). Alonso to Lotus might be as stupid as Lewis to Mercedes looked.
It's amazing how fast Lotus fell. Last year at this time they were vying for 2nd in the Constructors' C'ship. I would like to see the 3 "classic" teams dominate for a few years ... meaning Ferrari. Lotus & McLaren. Williams, too!
So where is the engineering talent to get them back to the front? There has been an exodus of talent like rats leaving a sinking ship over the last 2 years. Stroll money and Mercedes power sound good, but Lotus is lacking engineering and design talent and next year's car has to be in design already. This would appear to be a mistake if Fernando were to leave Ferrari for Lotus at this time.
If Lotus is a viable option for him, perhaps 2016 would be the year to go. Unless he wants to write off 2015 as a development year to build the team and give feedback for the 2016 design. All the best, Andrew.
I wouldn't use "always" in F1 MB is likely to dominate next year until Honda is up to speed. But at least he got the fastest engine under his belt. Coming in 3rd sounds better than 5th to me.
For a top driver like Alonso anything worse than 1st is not much better than 5th. The only reason for going there would be getting the retirement money from the American Dad.
