Alonso 'better' for Ferrari than Raikkonen - boss

LOL!

Thou doth protest too much.

I imagine the spotlight hurts when it makes you look like a tool, but you shoulda remembered that *before* you based Domenicali for being ignorant, right after you based F-chatters for being ignorant in comparison to any F1 insider.

The ducking and weaving is pretty hilarious though.

Like I said, I look forward to ongoing reports of Kimi domination of WRC - please don't leave now that Kimi's been ditched from F1!

 

Fixed

 

Times have changed since then.

 

Yes agreed Alonso and Mclaren were a bad mix.

The thing is either one of them FA or LH should have won that year, if they had worked as a team, so when folk say FA is a team player, well yes thats the case as long as there all singing his tune.

Alonso is probably still the best all round package of a driver, and value for money.

Massa has it all to do IMO, will it be zero to hero or hero to zero, time will tell.

In this present climate Kimi is probably the last of the international playboys, party hard and driving fast is not enough.

 

I thank you. And we wait...

 

Here's My view on the whole Alonso Vs Kimi debate (not that anyone's asked for it but I never let a little thing like that stop Me ):


Kimi is a fantastic natural driver, of that there can be no argument. Give him a fast car and on his day, he can obliterate all the opposition. But he's like Oddball in Kelly's Heroes: "Oh man!, I only ride 'em, I don't know what makes 'em work!".
Basically he's an "old school" driver, in the mould of Gilles Villeneuve, Rene Arnoux, Jean Alesi etc.They weren't concerned with the engineering side of the car,they were paid to drive.

Alonso is more like Senna and Schumacher when it comes to understanding the engineering of the car (but in My opinion not as good). He takes more interest in how the car is constructed and what effect one area has on another than Kimi did.
Senna appreciated the gains to be had from this approach first (in the "modern"era), not just from the point of car performance but also from the respect it gained from the engineers.
Schuey took this to it's ultimate limit and set a bench mark that few drivers will ever achieve. This method is what helped him get the performance out of cars that other drivers couldn't achieve (along with his superb natural ability of course). It also mean't that the engineers felt more appreciated, which in turn made them feel more encouraged to push harder for success.

This is what Ferrari see in Alonso and why they were so eager to get him ASAP.

As for a repeat of what happened at McLaren occuring, as long as Ferrari have been clear about the deal they have given to Alonso and do not change the deal after the event, I can't see this happening.
McLaren went pear shaped because the deal offered as an inducement to get Alonso to the team turned out to be different to the deal recieved.

I suspect McLaren didn't expect Hamilton to adapt to F1 as well as he did so they got Alonso in, offering him No.1 status and priority on everything, with a view that Lewis could learn from Alonso for a couple of years and then take over as the No.1 driver.
Trouble was, Lewis adapted much better than expected and so McLaren quickly ditched the original plan as they (for "they" read Ron Dennis), would much rather have a home grown Champion from within the team than Alonso (although a Title with Alonso would be almost as welcome). This annoyed Alonso, hence all the aggro'.

All speculation of course but it does fit in and make sense (Which is unusual for Me )

 

Knowing that its not a matter of if but when

 

This is my only problem in you statement and one I can't get my head around. Renault beat Ferrari twice with Alonso so Renaults engineers are not slouches, but it was Hamilton and the McLaren engineers that brought the MP4 from last place to first. While the Renault made no real remarkable progress through the year. That being said I think Alonso addition to the Scuderai will greatly enhance next years Ferrari, but the question is will he be able to beat Massa with it? If not how will he react and will Ferrari have a mess hollier than Lewis vs Alonso in 07...

 

Honestly, that is not a question. Of course he'll beat Massa.

The real question is whether the new Ferrari will be good enough to win races.

 

The 2010 Ferrari will no doubt be a better car after Alonso is through with it...

 

Well as the saying goes Don, you can't polish a turd.

KERS was the problem IIRC, and the aero issues rear end wise, LH did or would have finished 3rd in the opening GP this year.

I would imagine LH is getting to the stage where he is giving good car feedback, and all the more power to him. However I don't subscribe to fact that a driver can get a car to be a winning one by sheer feedback from driving it, I'am sure FA and some of the other drivers are naturally better at it then others and that comes with experience.

And this in turn can add to the overall speed and handling of the car, but it has to be pretty good design to begin with.

 

Are you sure about that?:
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I'd take Steve's word on that. Lord knows he's tried

 

LOL
You Bastrd's..

I'll put that on my xmas list to santa..

 

I read an interesting article - can't remember where I read it - with Hamilton talking about his involvement with the engineering guys. He said he went to great lengths to understand the aerodynamics and engineering, and would regularly talk with the engineers about improvements, and even had suggested parts they should develop. He said he designed a part and asked they try it on the car, and testing revealed that it gave them a 3% downforce improvement.

So I think it will be interesting to see how McLaren/Ferrari do next year. If Alonso blows away Massa, it makes Kimi look really bad. If Lewis blows away Button, it makes Button look bad. If the McLaren and Ferrari are roughly equal in speed, it will be really interesting to see who improves most over the year. I've read that the '10 McLaren is a very 'aggressive' design, whatever that means.

I can't wait for the first race!

 

I can't wait either.
It will mean that all the speculation is over
I take those articles with a liberal (excuse the expression) grain of salt. They are all either generated by or filtered through the team's PR dept.

 

I have no doubt Hamilton would take an interest he would know to be the best and beat the best you have do the extra mileage after hours.

Alonso, I would say it's a given he will faster than Massa, IIRC MS gave Massa alot of help whether that will still be case now is a unknown to me.

Aggressive and Button doesn't sound right to me, However Hamilton and aggressive does.

Thats of course if they are talking about the way the car handles as to how it looks.

I friend told me today that they have read that Button basically got shown the door at BrawnGP/Merc...I'm still not sure, but it is likely.

Next race bring it on..

 

If Jensen got the bum's rush why did Ross make such a public attempt to keep him at the last moment?

 

Well yes, but methinks Merc have the say now, and thats the reason they pulled out of Mclaren so as to say who is driving ect.

Whether this is the right move or not remains to be seen.

Ross B probably said it as a matter of course, we will probably find out in due course what really was said, as of now it's assumption.

 

You still think that at some point all will be revealed?
They won't even publish the Concorde Agreement.
Perhaps when Bernie is no longer around to exact revenge but certainly not before.

 

I hard that Brawn wanted Button and was negotiating hard... Benz didn't want him at all, so when they took over, Button was told he would not be getting a drive with Benz.

I think it worked in Buttons favor though, in the end.

 

At some point someone will write a book and blow the lid off whole frigging lot. Your right I guess there waiting for Bernie to do one. Meanwhile what goes on behind closed doors, is are best guess.

Mosley would be the main feature, of any lid lifting book.

 

Sounds about right that Mike..

 

Don't you hate it when we all agree?

 

It won't last..