New video: http://www.antena3.com/formula-1/noticias/video-exclusiva-accidente-fernando-alonso-montmelo_2015030600301.html
I know. Some have commented the thump was an electrical shock but imo was just the impact. Strange no tyre screech can be heard.
I think Alonso realises that the Honda Accord engine in the back of his McLaren is way off the pace (and possibly the chassis is too because McLaren in 2014 were the slowest Merc powered team) and may cash in his exit clause and retire. Unfortunately, as I am a (Bruce) McLaren fan, I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of McLaren. Surely also the utter lack of respectibility in F1 will hurt their road car sales. IMO they need to sack their current designers and break open the wallet and spend some serious coin and get a top designer in there. I'd be looking at Mercedes staff for somebody that does not think they are getting the recognition they think they deserve ... Pete
They already did that with Peter Prodmorou (sp?). He was "Adrians right hand man" and "head of aero" IIRC...... It's early yet, so hard to tell until they get some *real* HP, but my impression is that the car is at least "OK", its Honda's PU that sucks!..... Anyone seen if Mags/Alonso are out a unit already? We know the Cans & Smiley Boy are down to three for the rest of the season, is McSputter in the same boat? Cheers, Ian
Tough luck for Alonso. He may be regretting alienating Ferrari now, since Button finished dead last, and neither car made it out of Q3. No way in hell they'll even podium this year, but what it's absolutely certain, is he'll do MUCH worse than Ferrari. At this point in his life, if I had an out, I'd certainly consider it. It might be too late to get a sports car seat, but regardless, if he doesn't win or even podium the entire season, he'll be much less valuable than what he is now. A lose-lose situation, but he needs to choose the least of the 2 evils. What would you folks do in his shoes? Call it a day, or tough it out and drive that dog of a car?
hmmmm good question indeed....I love Eric Boullier's comment on Motorsport that they used this race as a testing session only. WTF??? Anyway I think a company as small as McSputter is being stretched too thin to try and become a legitimate volume sports cars manufacturer/assembler as well as a front running F1 team.
Not a bad plan actually. Nobody other than Mercedes is going to win this season anyway. May as well use the 5.5-6 hours of track time each GP weekend exclusively to develop the chassis and engine for 2016 rather than work on qualifying or race setup like the other teams do. Blame the FIA for allowing the team with the best car in the first race to artificially maintain that advantage all season thanks to the testing ban.
I still haven't stopped laughing about Alonso puffing that he was in total control of how the driver chess pieces moved last year. But now that his car has already used one of its 4 engines before turning a race lap, I'm rolling on the floor. Good luck with that headache Nando.
Does everyone actually believe this farce? Alonso crashed on purposed to avoid be involved in the McLaren/Honda crisis in Australia... He didn't get knocked out and concussed. He is being a primadonna and trying to save face.
Blame the FIA? Artificially? It was the teams that agreed to ban in-season testing several years ago (long before the 2014 engine change) as a cost reduction measure - separate test teams of engineers and mechanics, separate test chassis, are all incredibly expensive to run for multiple test sessions at remote from base race tracks. It was also the teams, with their engine suppliers, that requested the engine change rules - Renault led the charge to change to I4 turbo power units. While Mercedes supported the change, as did most of the teams and engine manufacturers initially, Ferrari included, it was Renault pushing the hardest. So, test ban = unrelated to engine change. All teams supported for cost reduction purposes. Engine rule change - unrelated to Mercedes specifically. How is it then the FIA's "fault" that Mercedes happened to do a much better job of designing a new engine and power unit than Renault and Ferrari? Don't forget that Ferrari supported the new engine rules, they did not use their infamous veto to quash the change - they did use their influence to revise the proposed change from 1.5 litre I4 to 1.6 litre V6. Sure, the show wasn't as good last year because of the Mercedes superiority - but the show wasn't very good for Vettel winning 9 races in a row the prior year, either. Were you complaining in 2013 that the FIA was artificially allowing Red Bull to dominate because they didn't allow in-season testing then also?
Blame the FIA? Artificially? It was the teams that agreed to ban in-season testing several years ago (long before the 2014 engine change) as a cost reduction measure - separate test teams of engineers and mechanics, separate test chassis, are all incredibly expensive to run for multiple test sessions at remote from base race tracks. It was also the teams, with their engine suppliers, that requested the engine change rules - Renault led the charge to change to I4 turbo power units. While Mercedes supported the change, as did most of the teams and engine manufacturers initially, Ferrari included, it was Renault pushing the hardest. So, test ban = unrelated to engine change. All teams supported for cost reduction purposes. Engine rule change - unrelated to Mercedes specifically. How is it then the FIA's "fault" that Mercedes happened to do a much better job of designing a new engine and power unit than Renault and Ferrari? Don't forget that Ferrari supported the new engine rules, they did not use their infamous veto to quash the change - they did use their influence to revise the proposed change from 1.5 litre I4 to 1.6 litre V6. Sure, the show wasn't as good last year because of the Mercedes superiority - but the show wasn't very good for Vettel winning 9 races in a row the prior year, either. Were you complaining in 2013 that the FIA was artificially allowing Red Bull to dominate because they didn't allow in-season testing then also? I find it amusing to look back at how many people were complaining last year about Honda's unfair advantage, how Honda would be able to learn from the other teams' problems during the 2014 racing season to develop a dominant power unit for 2015, and the other manufacturers had frozen engines but Honda could develop for the year, etc. Now we see that Honda has a crap power unit, you'd have to wonder if they ran it on any dyno in anywhere close to an installed config with the MGUs installed and operating. No advantage at all from their extra year, obviously. I don't think Honda of the 80s and early 90s exists any more - Honda then had an engineering and racing focus (that Toyota never had), driven from Soichiro himself. Back then, they knew how to be a racing company with an engineering focus. They lost that as their corporate philosophies eroded from that focus, their engineering development programs lost their edge. Honda of the 2000s, powering BAR or owning the team, weren't a shadow of their 1980s incarnation, their 2000s engines were never the equal of the other engine builders' efforts... so I never thought they'd be able to match, much less dominate, the current F1 engine specs. Unfortunately, I think McLaren spent too much time looking through the rose coloured glasses in their desperation to find an advantage over Mercedes.
I'm not too sure. Mag had another strange accident in practice 2. Might be the brake regen not working properly.
In answer to your last question, yes. F1 used to be a season-long battle of drivers and technology. Now the technology battle lasts up to the start of the first race. When Ferrari dominated a decade ago there was nothing artificially stopping the other teams from catching up. They just didn't have the depth of engineering to do it. Same with McLaren in the 80's and Williams in the 90's. Mercedes and Red Bull may have been able to see off any challenges just as well but we'll never know because the rest of the teams are barely allowed to try. Knowing that takes half the fun out of it, for me at least. The only reason the testing ban and the engine homologation rules are still in effect is that the teams need to unanimously agree to change them. There's no doubt that Ferrari/Red Bull/McLaren would love to change but Mercedes would never agree. And I completely understand that. They want a few years of return on their investment. But, for the good of the sport, can't the FIA or Bernie step in and allow more competition, at least from 2017 on?
Alonso is hoping for 19 more engine blow ups like Magnuson before the race starts. Imagine getting paid all year and then watch it on TV instead of fighting it out with Button for who is 17th and who is 18th.
Yes blame the FIA. Their role is to further the good of the sport. Not to defer to the teams nor the commercial rights holder. A responsibility that they've utterly abandoned.
This comment presumes that they are going to beat Manor once they finish assembling their car.....Nando and Jens could be battling for 19th and 20th once their is a full grid...
This assumes that Marussia didn't sell the instruction manuals to Haas, and Manor are able to figure out where bolt A and hole B are.
