(from autosport) Fernando Alonso and his Renault team have rubbished any suggestions that he 'brake tested' Lewis Hamilton prior to their collision in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton ran into the back of Alonso as they came out of Turn Three on lap two, and there had been suspicions from some that the Briton may have been a victim of a lift off the throttle by his former teammate. But Alonso has insisted that he does not know why Hamilton hit the back of him, and said there was no case of him employing dirty tactics. "I think we were running too close and for sure maybe he didn't realise how close we were," said Alonso. "He jumped into my rear wing. I am sure on the first couple of laps, if you are eighth or ninth, you try to recover places too quickly." When asked about the speculation of a brake test, Alonso said: "Well, Pat Symonds told me now that rumour, and he has printed now the data to show everybody. It is totally rubbish, but what can I do?" Autosport.com has seen the telemetry data of Alonso's exit from the first corner, and it shows that the Spaniard was flat on the throttle from the exit, did not touch the brake and gained speed in a totally predictable manner. Symonds, who is Renault's executive director of engineering, said that Alonso had done nothing to contribute to the accident. "Fernando was coming out of the turn and accelerating down the straight," explained Symonds. "He reached fifth gear, at 227km/h, on full throttle, no touching of the brakes or anything like that. And you can see on the accelerometer the impact. He got hit from behind. "I think all I can say from our side is that there is no blame attributable to Fernando, which is what some of the speculation might be. But it does say we are not getting onto the straights very well, we are suffering a bit with traction, engine speed and engine torque." When asked about the view of some experts in the paddock who believed it could have been a brake test, Symonds said: "Well, they are not as expert as they think then. We have the data and there is nothing untoward there. You don't need to be an expert to see that."
I am the last one here to defend Alonso but what happened was just a racing accident. Fernando was a lot heavier on fuel and Hamilton as usual was doing his best under braking to gain on him. Lewis did the same thing two corners before that and got away with it. The minute LH hit Alonso James Allen started saying that Alonso brake checked Hamilton. I say a big big BS.
Well all seem's good then if FA hit the throttle hard no escaping the fact LH mistake. Only thing is, I think FA is shrewd enough to floor it Knowing full well he would lose traction.and slow up as a result knowing lewis being hot headed coming from behind would ram him, the clue is in this statement: " But it does say we are not getting onto the straights very well, we are suffering a bit with traction, engine speed and engine torque." But it sound's like sour grapes on my behalf, so I give it as LH's fault..
Mr. H is still a rookie making rookie mistakes. Huge talent but too vulnerable to the red mist when things go a little wrong.
i don't call it a racing incident when Hamilton climbs all over Alonso's rear only to have McLaren cry over spilt milk and make accusations!
I didn't know they had, I have read Lewis admit's it was his fault...correct me if I'am wrong though.
Is fame and fortune getting to Lewis? Sad to see one of his major mistakes over the Grand Prix weekend be blamed on Fernando. I hope Hamilton arrives in Spain focused on driving.
Yes Nick, just read his post interview and he blamed himself.. Lewis revealed that his very slow start, which saw him fall from third to 10th, was his own mistake. "I messed up at the start as I didnt hit the switch early enough and therefore had not engaged the correct engine setting, and the anti-stall kicked in," he said. "I lost a lot of places but things were still salvageable at that point." He also dismissed any sugestion that Alonso had deliberately slowed in front of him. "I was behind him, and I moved to the right, and he moved to the right and that was it a racing incident I guess," Hamilton said. It doesn't mention Mclaren as in the team complaining ,your right a rumour/comment started by Allen.
It's nice to hear Hamilton admitted it was his fault. Because I hate the Speed Channel commentators...in their opinion Hamilton is never wrong! Alonso could be heavier at the moment as they said so what? That doesn't mean everyone has to let Hamilton pass by...he has to wait for the opportunity to overtake just like anyone else. Let's not forget Alonso has won two F1 championships...so he's not just another driver as the speed channel crew makes it seem.
Well then the question remains: What should he have done instead to avoid the accident? But well, as Lewis admitted it was his fault, discussing the matter is pointless now
And his hand signals for Sato and Fisi, a classic jerk behavior IMO. But he does seem a bit better than Massa, at least he knows when to stand up and take the blame.
We get the ITV feed here in Canada. A lot of insinuations going at Fernando after that incident. "I would like to see the telemetry data, I want the stewards to look at the telemetry data".. blah blah blah.. Well, it's been seen.
Just imagine if the Speed crew said they wanted to see the telemetry every time Scott Speed crashed. None of last years races would've been official till now.
Alonso didn't brake test, and Lewis made a mistake. Just like any driver, he will make more, so what. I was not in the car with Lewis so I do not know why he was pissed at Sato and Fisi. Still, he should have contained his frustration. Alonso did another good job with a really crap car. Possibly F1 should take a hint from NASCAR and if a driver gives the finger, or uses colorful metaphors, he should get a penalty. Nevertheless, Lewis is showing he is human and capable of mistakes. He will learn, and could someday be a WDC.
+1. Now if Lewis and McLaren (and *****head Bernie) had brought him correctly into F1 and given him a clear number 2 under Alonso he would have been able to learn all these things without the enormous pressure from the British media/public. Instead they are expecting him to win the WDC every race, because he happened to have a pretty damn good first few races of his rookie year. The guy has a really big possibility at ending up like Jensen Button, because he was allowed to get to impressed with his own ability too fast ... when will these teams learn?? McLaren probably, as I have said continuously, should have bought a drive for him in a Toro Roso or something so he could learn without too many expectations. Ferrari do that with their drivers ... Pete
I had similar thoughts watching today's race. Would be a real shame if such a great potential was lost because of bad management.
Lewis' accident with Alonso and his gesticulations at Sato and Fisi were all rooted in the first four seconds of the start. No only did he start off compromised (his grid position and the fact that HK had outgunned him up until then) but his start was compromised, either by himself, his equipment or both. He just got on the juice too soon, set the trajectory of the car and Fred was there. That's it. It was controlled aggression that failed. His flipping off guys he's racing with makes no sense, especially since his car was compromised and he was running laps two seconds off the leaders. He's a young guy with not that many GP starts. He's under far more pressure than anyone thought from HK and the Mac-Mercedes is not what it was last year (a few less F-car parts or ideas on them?) More fireworks this season if he continues to feel entitled and allows misfortune to get to him. I used to think Fred was weak in the head, maybe LH is starting to crack, too...
I think a lot has to do with Alonso not being present to take the car forward. Alonso started as a test driver for Renault, and raced for Minardi. Perhaps that would have helped Lewis out more, as people have been saying. Let Lewis be a test driver for Maclaren and race for one of the bottom feeder teams.
Now this will keep me up tonight. I am going to defend both Alonso and Hamilton. Even stranger, drugs and alchohol are not involved. I do not blame Hamilton for his frustration and subsequent misguided behavior. He has great talent, I hope he succeeds, but I am not sure he is as great as some of you think. He has much too learn, and his biggest problem is his rapid success in 2007. Not only he wasn't ready for it, it put this kid in a stressful position he did not need. Maybe he arrived a year or two too early. Now I fear he will never be a WDC, and the sport needs him to be WDC. Alonso is a great driver, one of the top 10 of all time (no Ted, I am not drinking ouzo again). He should have been treated differently at McLaren, Ron Dennis really screwed up with this deal. To allow Hamilton an equal status obviously hurt the team. So when you complain about Fred not being a team player, neither was Lewis. For the record, I respect them both as drivers, Lewis is not ready, he is proving that so far this year, and Fred is great. Yet, Massa is better because on top of really being fast, one of the top three, he is a team player. ;}
A couple of quotes from The Telegraph "As he strived to recover lost ground he clipped the back of Fernando Alonso through turn four. A lap later, as he tried to jump Alonso on the straight out of turn three, the bridge of the front wing came away and Hamilton ploughed into the Renault's rear." "It was a very poor performance. I let the team down today," Hamilton said. "It went bad from the beginning. As a professional you start off bad and you need to pick up the pieces and deliver points. I didn't do any of that for the team. "I had the collision with Fernando, which cost the whole race. I'm always the first to blame it on myself. That's the right way to go." Alonso certainly appears blameless which I though would be the case all along. As for Hamilton's behaviour to the backmarkers he was racing for position with, I think that came down to shere arrogance & petulance. I wholeheartedly agree that he should have spent a season or two with one of the lower ranked teams learning his craft and earning his stripes before stepping up to the big boys. Afterall if it's good enough for the Schumacher's and Senna's of this world then why not Lewis; or is he better than them? I think not!
