SPANISH F1 Fans Howl, Throw Junk, At McLaren In Barcelona

(from autosport)


Barcelona circuit officials had to close the entrance to the spectators grandstand facing the McLaren garages today, after local fans were constantly howling abuse at the Woking outfit.

Spanish fans, believing their hero Fernando Alonso was treated unfairly by the team last year, have continually expressed their displeasure with McLaren both at Valencia and Barcelona in preseason testing.

This included shouting of profanity at Alonso's 2007 teammate Lewis Hamilton, hanging unflattering banners, and even throwing junk towards the McLaren cars as they left for the track.

Initially, the Barcelona track organisers sent security guards to the grandstands while McLaren team members did their best to ignore the abuse.

However today, following another escalation in the fans' behaviour, the team asked the track officials to shut down the entry to that specific grandstand in order to get on with their work undisturbed.

A source at the Barcelona circuit told autosport.com this involved "a minority of fans that were behaving unsportingly and tarnishing the reputation of the Spanish fans, who simply come to the track to follow the sport they love."

Asked about the situation, a McLaren spokesman told autosport.com: "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has raced and tested on Spanish circuits for many years, and everyone connected with the team regards Spain and the Spanish people with great affection, Lewis included."
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What does Ja Ja mean? Our friend here, Christian FR uses the slang.

 

In Spanish, Ha Ha (letter "j" pronounced like letter "h"). Jamaican means God. German, yes. Have no idea what it would mean in French.

 

Ja, Ja it is for Laughter, they are making fun of Ha Ha Hamilton...

only that

 

Now that's class...

 

This is the same dude who blackmailed his team when they chose to treat both drivers equally costing them $100 million. Just checking

 

Ja ja

 

Can you imagine? Fans hurling abuse ??? .....Time for the Bernerator to go up into the crowd and teach them a thing or two .....by charging them full tick to get those seats.

 

If FA was testing at Silverstone I'am sure a toys out the pram poster may appear, but for me I respect all the drivers too much for puerile slogans although I may laugh at them.

 

Here we go again:

Blackmailing?

Just for the record: It was Ron Dennis who called Max Mosley to tell him about the emails. That happened on Sunday morning at the Hungarian GP.

Alonso wanted to get out of the McLaren contract. RD wouldn't let him. So Alonso told Bernie about the emails (right after qualifying in Hungary) hoping that the big Zampano would have a word with Ron. Indeed Bernie then talked to Ron and Ron went public. Alonso showed no loyalty, but he didn't blackmail RD.

 

about as classy as British soccer fans...

he's their local hero, what do you expect???

finally someone with some sense.....

 

Actually, didn't it all start the Sunday of the Hungarian GP when Alonso essentially told RD that if he didn't slow Hamilton down he would take his emails to the FIA? At least this is what was reported on several web sites. If you have heard contradictory information that I missed I'd be interested to hear it.

 

I never read/heard that Alonso blackmailed RD to slow down Hamilton or else he'd go public with the emails.

The stories I read were that Alonso demanded team orders after Monaco and RD refused to give Alonso #1 status. So in essence Alonso then was looking for a way out of the contract. He realised, that if the spygate affair would become public, he could get out of the McLaren contract because it has a clause that allows him to bail if the team gets into ill repute. Which in the end was exactly how it all played out.

After the qualifying disaster in Hungary on Saturday, Alonso and his manager went to Bernie's motorhome and presented the emails in Spanish. His manager translated into English for Bernie. Bernie immediately realized what a bombshell they were. Bernie then went to Ron. On Sunday morning Ron called Max Mosley and told him all about it.

Source: BusinessF1 07

Only in the barely credible Bild website did I ever find a reference to Alonso as having used blackmail. But then again Bild was shooting against Alonso all year long because he dethroned their beloved MS and now besmeared their beloved silver arrows.

 

Apparently Bild may have taken the situation and stretched it to the point of calling it blackmail.

But still, by exposing those emails, he sinks the whole team for the sole purpose of getting out of his contract. Couldn't he buy his way out like Button did with Williams? I understand the team were cheating and deserved to get caught but he was cheating too. He was happy to comminicate with de la Rosa knowing that the info was coming from Stepney, but when he couldn't get #1 status he suddenly became the noble whistle blower. Would he have been so honest had he not been given immunity from his own actions?

And all of this unhappiness came about because he couldn't beat a rookie teammate in equal equipment. He wasn't getting inferior equipment than Hamilton, just equal. I believe that had he dug deep upon realizing Hamilton's talent, rather than taking the Prost-like political whining approach, he could have beaten Hamilton on track and taken the title by the end of the season. Instead he self destructed and took the team with him, possibly costing some poor low level guys back at the factory their jobs if the team make cutbacks to pay for the $100 million fine. Hopefully McLaren is wealthy enough for that not to happen.

 

Its always important for any driver or team to associate with the fans and handle issues as diplomatically as possible.
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This is one of the many reasons why I do not care for FA and why I hope he never drives for Ferrari...I care about the team too much. I think FA's a very talanted driver (not the best on the grid but very talented none-the-less). However, that is where the "warm and fuzzies" toward FA end . IMHO, FA's "less than ideal" ethics, character and self-centeredness overshadow his abilities in an F1 car and make him a very unstable and dangerous factor to a team. I think FA would be best suited in a team where he is the owner, CEO, manager, engineer, technician, pit crew and driver. The only problem with that is, who would he blame when he didn't perform well?

 

Ja Ja Ja

 

+1!

Oh, the horror of it all!...fans hurling abuse! They should go check out some NHL or NFL fans, then they'll find out what "fans hurling abuse" is all about!

 

I guess I should add Ja Ja Ja PT

 

Lewis of course

 

off topic
Clint...are you a fan of the rock group Rush?

 

Exactly!

 

Isn't everybody??

Seriously though...yes, I am a big fan.





How could you tell?

 

To be more specific: NFL 'fans' in Philadelphia, Jets fans, and a certain section in Oakland.. all other teams' fans are pretty sedate.

 

I recently attended a Flyers/Bruins game in Philly wearing a Bruins jersey. I was one of 3 guys at the game doing so.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least...