http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&PO_ID=40613 Great win for Alonso and a proud day for McLaren. I’m hugely impressed with the boys on the shop floor and the engineers for ignoring all the brickbats that have been thrown at them this weekend by the FIA, Ferrari and the Italian authorities and getting on with the job. This was a crushing victory for McLaren and even though Ferrari looked to have sprung a surprise by one stopping Kimi and jumping Hamilton at the second round of pit stops, Lewis was so motivated by the attacks on his team that he was determined to pass him back again and duly did so with one of the moves of the season. The problem for Hamilton in the middle stint of the race was that he flat-spotted one of his tyres and this developed into a severe vibration. McLaren brought him in slightly early for his second stop, when he was only 25 seconds ahead of Kimi and this meant that the Finn went past him for second place. But Lewis is so good at knowing where to put his car when he overtakes and he also has exceptional feel on the brakes, as he showed last season in GP2. He came from a long way back and put his car in exactly the right place both to take the position and to avoid a collision. How many times over the years have you seen a driver try something similar from that kind of distance behind and it ends in a collision? Lewis has such assurance about him when he makes a move, he’s either behind or he’s right there and the other guy has to yield. I also think that a big factor in that was the position of the Ferrari’s mirrors. The drivers have to crank their heads over to see anything in the mirrors, which are placed on the edge of the sidepods. You could see that Kimi was looking straight ahead and had no idea that Lewis was coming. Lewis caught him napping, much as Villeneuve did to Schumacher at Jerez in 1997. Body blow Nevertheless this weekend was another blow for Hamilton. He now has only a three point margin over Alonso, who has got steadily stronger as the season has gone on, bearing out his assertion earlier in the year that he needed time to get the best out of the new car and new tyres. Lewis was faster than him in Turkey, but Alonso was definitely faster here, maybe two or three tenths. A big part of that is having the experience of driving a skittish low downforce car around this unique track, managing to brake smoothly for the chicanes and not lock up the wheels. Lewis did that in the middle stint and it cost him five seconds over the stint. Mission accomplished Alonso was very motivated today too, by the frustrations he has suffered over the years here, particularly last year when he was given that ridiculous penalty for blocking a Ferrari in qualifying. He wanted a Monza win to add to his scalps at all the top tracks of the world. I found it very interesting afterwards in the press conference to hear him being asked about the significance of his win for the team on this difficult weekend. He chose to answer about himself, underlining the distance that exists between him and McLaren. He feels that things he was promised by McLaren have not come to fruition and all the signs are that his confidence in the management of the team has been eroded. Whether this is justified or not, I don’t know. Nor do I know whether the situation is repairable. Alonso has certainly alienated much of the team and he cuts quite a lonely figure in the garage with only his engineer, who has to talk to him, and his Spanish physio for company. I’ve noticed also that his father and manager seem to spend more time outside the motorhome than in it, which may mean nothing but may indicate that they don’t feel particularly welcome there. If he wins the title he may take a sabbatical, as Alain Prost did in 1992. It depends on the outcome of the hearing in Paris this week as to what happens next, but Renault are waiting to see if he becomes available and Ferrari, even though Todt has said he will never drive for the team after pulling out of a deal in 2001, may be forced to revise his opinion by Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo. Reaching his peak With four races to go, Alonso has to fancy his chances of the title now. He is very strong at all the known tracks we will visit and he has momentum on his side, Lewis cannot afford any mistakes and really needs to finish in front of him at Spa. Ferrari will be a lot stronger there, as it features lots of medium speed and fast corners, which the Ferrari loves. The Ferrari drivers are out of the title race now, unless they are miraculously sprung back into it again on Thursday. But this I doubt as the letter from Max Mosley to the McLaren drivers demanding that they hand over their emails did specifically say that they would be immune from prosecution if they complied. So I think that if McLaren is found guilty it will be the constructors' championship which will be affected. This would also cost McLaren a fortune as the difference between finishing first and 11th is probably of the order of £50 million. The Ferrari was no match for the McLaren this weekend because it is less supple on the kerbs. It was a similar story in Montreal. McLaren’s advantage was not just Monza specific stuff though. They seem to have made a step on the car generally and I think that they will be stronger at Spa than we might have imagined. Ferrari will also be worried again by their reliability, which is the main thing to cost them this year. This was their fourth retirement of the year, but they have also had problems in qualifying which have cost them. Final shout for Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg once again. Both did impeccable jobs on qualifying and the race and deservedly got strong results.
Immunity in this case applies to the status of their Superliscense. If McLaren if found guilty, the drivers won't lose their ability to drive for other teams. If De la Rosa and Alonso knew Ferrari details (as it appears they did), the drivers will be penalized also (from a championship standpoint). Kimi and Massa are most likely out of the race, under normal circumstance. It would take a freakish series of DNF's to derail Hamilton or Alonshole.
I predicted that Alonshole would not compliment the team in the interview and he did not. In fact, he did not even mention the team. Lewis did though. Smart IMVHO. Alonshole is not very smart, just fast. Guess that's what they pay him for. Now I must say that Unfairnando was very focussed today. Didn't see a mistake on his part. Have to admit he looks like the best driver in F1 right now. I was hoping that Lewis would beat him today. Unfortuneatly, the driver he beat was Kimi. It looks almost impossible for Ferrari to win this on the track this year. And having their points taken away is a hollow victory indeed. Wonder when they'll announce their decision in this regard. Hope they don't wait until the season is over.
lewis didn't catch anybody napping. kimi had a stiff neck from a huge shunt and by the end of the race he just couldn't hold his head up under braking. the announcers were pointing that out as it happened and kimi confirmed it in the interviews.
If McLaren did benefit from the espionage, and apparently they did, the team and drivers should be penalized. After all they all benefited!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really liked the part where Peter asked him about the team and something to the fact on how they would be feeling now after a 1 2 here in Italy and all Alonhole said was I this and I that. This guy is one great piece of work. How this guy could have enough fans to fill a phone booth is beyond me.
+1 When Unfairnando Alonshole looks in the mirror it covers pretty much all of his fan base outside of Spain. To some Spaniards he can do no wrong. It's like family, doesn't make any sense. One thing for sure is he soesn't have many fans on the McCheater team. LH can't stand him but tolerates him in public IMVHO. I will be shocked if he is driving for Dennis the Menace and the McCheaters next year.
LOL! The anti-McLaren, pro-Ferrari bias here is astounding, even given that this is a Ferrari forum! All reason and logic seems to have abandoned those who tread here... GrndLkNatv, please give a legal definition of Industrial Espionage. Now, please explain how on earth the Stepney-Coughlan situation could possibly constitute industrial espionage. Short answer - it can't. Period. If you guys can't understand that, then find a lawyer to explain that to you. Next, could someone explain how it is that McLaren's supposed stolen or acquired information has resulted in Ferrari suffering worse reliability this year than any of the previous 6 or so years? The reason McLaren is leading both championships is because they've had 100% reliability, and Ferrari has had relatively poor reliability. The McLaren cars have not been consistently faster, it's very close in that regard. The championship gap is solely due to Ferrari's lack of reliability. Unless you Ferrari fanatics are alleging that McLaren stole Ferrari's reliability... but I doubt even Nigel Stepney could deliver that. I'm not suggesting that McLaren is entirely innocent, obviously a member of their team did possess Ferrari inside information (note, possession, not theft - Coughlan did not actively steal the documents, nor pay anyone to steal them, nor instigate or initiate the transfer or reward the person who provided them in any way, shape, or form). But let's get real, people, and not look ridiculous with the hyperbole and gross exaggeration here! In fact, it does appear that Max is on a witch hunt as suggested by the ITV crew, and the issue has been blown all out of proportion to the actual damage. By the way, did any of you bother to read the Thursday Monza GP press conference, with engineers and designers from other teams? Did anybody notice how they almost all said that the Stepney documentation would be pretty much useless, especially in trying to use it to gain any advantage from a car already designed along different design principles and philosophies? Never mind, why let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt!
I think you are assuming a lot here, no-one has said McL stole the information, it was given to their head designer by a disgruntled tosser who thought he was a lay down misere' for Brawn's job. This IS NOT a witch hunt, what it really appears to be now is that Fred and pink glasses had the tyre information that was in the 780 pages of docos Nige baby sent to Coughlan and this was used by pink to help Fred in setting up the car on the Bridgestone tyres , so Max is saying that these guys were using ill-gotten data to speed up their understanding process of the tyres which are THE most important thing (bar reliability as you have pointed out) in getting ahead in the game. And really, do we care what the designers and engineers from other losing teams say ffs ?? Look at it this way, you're designing a widget to compete with all the other guys in a widget race, you got a set of rules but not as much money as the other guys or you've been soundly beaten for years by the red widget guys and someone hands you the design AND gameplan of the red guys widget, suddenly you are now competitive , YOU found your own reliability which you are not getting credit for because someone has found out that you were using the ill-gotten info ........... in any sport you will be banned but there is lots and lots of money at stake here so ethics and fair-play will go out the window
The pot calling the kettle black?? You are assuming DLR used information from the Ferrari docs to help FA set up the car on the Bridgestones. Unless you are privvy to information that others of us are not, then this is an assumption as the only quoted exchange of emails between DLR and FA I've seen has DLR telling FA he 'd gotten info on how Ferrari have been successful with their Bridgstone setup and that the source of the info was "Stepney told Coughlan". To which FA's response was "I don't believe it". Is there more disclosure on their (DLR and FA) email exchanges that I've missed??
what ??!! are you crazy ? you shoot your argument down in the same post : ""You are assuming DLR used information from the Ferrari docs to help FA set up the car on the Bridgestones"" then you say : ""DLR telling FA he 'd gotten info on how Ferrari have been successful with their Bridgstone setup and that the source of the info was "Stepney told Coughlan"" 780 pages from Stepney to Coughlan IS the Ferrari information we are talking about right ??
John, I wasn't intending to get you all worked up in OZ! LoL. In your prior post, you said "This IS NOT a witch hunt,what it really appears to be now is that Fred and pink glasses had the tyre information that was in the 780 pages of docos Nige baby sent to Coughlan and this was used by pink to help Fred in setting up the car on Bridgestone tyres....." Since ALL I've seen regarding the email exchanges between DLR and FA is DLR telling FA that he had this info, and FA telling DLR that he didn't believe it, I was asking if you were privy to other emails of info that would show that FA had, in fact, used this data to his (unfair) advantage, or whether this was an ASSUMPTION or on your part?
I was joking with Gordo (alias Ron D, alias Lucifer) this IS a witch hunt and we're burning RD at the stake,
Yes...today the "Corriere della Sera" published more of the email contents. Here is an excerpt: Alonso to De la Rosa "I have to try it on the car and on the sim" referring to the brake system and the Bridgestone tire setup." They also refer in detail of other technical data that was obtained from the 780 page documents obtained from Coughlan. McL defense will probably be that they were just joking.
Well all I can say is if all of what has been talked about is true and it sure as hell looks like it is, then the McCheater team had better be removed from the standings for this season. If they are not then I seriously doubt that I will contiue watching this sport. I have been watching following F1 for about 27 years and I have seen all sorts of things happen on and off the track. This situation has taken it to a whole new level, one that I just dont care for. So the FIA and or the WMSC better do the right thing or Im done with F1 and will spend my Sat and Sun mornings golfing and or driving me car instead.
