It seems to me the Alonso era started in 2005 when he first beat MS for the WDC and continued in 2006 for Alonso's second WDC...
Alonso clearly has the driving talent to win the WDC in 2007. The question is whether or not McLaren will provide him with a car that is capable of winning. If Alonso had been driving for McLaren in 2006, he would not have won the WDC.
Alonso was quoted yesterday by Autosport as stating that he would be happy winning just one more championship as did Senna. Maybe he realizes that he may only have one more opportunity in the next 5-6 years? But he will likely never achieve a 4th or 5th, let alone 7.
If the Brasilian race is anything to go by, the 2007 season will be a Ferrari walk over. And if that happens I'm not so sure if Kimi will beat Massa hands down. This could mean that a third driver might take the title if Massa and Kimi fight eachother. Assuming that there's no #1 driver agreement at Ferrari... Best, Peter
You are spot on in your post with the exception of your third point here. If Kimi fails to win the title next year, it will be due to driver error. He is very hard on equipment and creates a lot of his own bad luck. He makes a lot of mistakes, something Alonso does not do. I think the championship comes down to two factors next season: 1st, the capability of the new McLaren and 2nd, Kimi keeping his car on the track.
Because there was a time early last year when Renault had indicated that it may not compete in F1 for 2007...so rather than wait and see, Alonzo went with his best offer which was with McLaren...
I believe the capability of Ferrari is a big if too...without MS and a lot of others that have been instrumental to Ferrari's F1 success over the last 10 years, who knows what kind of car Ferrari will bring to the track in 2007?
To win you have to FINISH, which is something McLaren hasn't proven very good at doing in recent years. If that doesn't change, then he won't have a chance. I do predict he will publicly blame his team, perhaps teammate, like a little brat as he did this season after any failures, although at McLaren he may actually have a point (still poor sportsmanship to rag one's team in public though).
As I was watching the race wind down, I wanted so badly for Michael to catch Kimi and FA, if only for just one last duel. Michael's pass on Kimi did not disappoint! One of my favorites, along with Kimi's spanking of Fisi on the last lap and FA's outside 130R on MS at Suzuka in '05. Clean, smooth passes. These boys have "a rather large set of attachments" as D. Hobbs would say. I don't see the other players on the same level...maybe Kubica, Kovalein (sp)? or Vettel on the horizon? As far as being in the best car, tires, aero, engine supplier, etc. - that's F1. It's all about timing. I watched MS just crush the field at Indy '03 when the rain came. Rubens took out JPM at T1 right in front of me. MS just had to get an eight place in the next race to win the championship vs Kimi. He went conservative and almost blew it! Point is, even MS and Ferrari will manage their lead/advantage, just as FA and Renault have done. Just imagine if MS wouldn't have parked at Monaco and just let Heidfeld by for third at Hock (?)... I'm a HUGE Schumie fan, but I think FA is the future. Now if he can stop criticising his mates and enough with those stupid poses/hand quacks at the end of the race!
Two reasons. One as mentioned by Franklin is that Renault was not certain at the beginning of the 2006 if it would continue beyond 2007 in F1. Also I believe it is Vodafone the is going to McLaren as primary sponsor and they pay $$$ for Alonso, and they wanted, demanded, whatever word you want to use, that he drive for McLaren. Alonso, call home, on your Vodafone.
The difference with MS going to Ferrari in 1996 was that they were a very weak team. They had just gotten Jean Todt and Luca had been in charge for a couple of years. They did not have the Technical team that MS helped bring over from Benetton. Alonso cannot do to McLaren what MS did to Ferrari as he won't be able to change the Structure of an Organization like McLaren that Michael was able to do at Ferrari. Michael was in a very unique situation at Ferrari that only comes about once in a lifetime. If anyone gets the new F1 Magazine, you will see the way MS controlled the team around him. It was his team built for him and run the way he wanted it to. Kudos to him for doing that, it will never happen again.
Excellent post, something I've been saying for awhile now; even then it took time to turn around Ferrari;this is why FA will have his work cut-out for him. Its not as if MS went to Ferrari and the engineers at Ferrari suddenly got smart; he took the Championship-winning Benetton technical team with him and they set **** straight-the fact they followed MS to Ferrari tells me they saw something in him they liked; big Ferrari $$$ didn't hurt either...If FA were taking Renault's engineering talent with him I'd like his chances alot better in the near future but McLaren right now is in a funk;they are not the cluster-**** that is Toyota.... This was the first time in a decade McLaren failed to win a race (per Hobbs); me thinks the fact that Newey left the team at the beginning of the season had a lot to do with it. A couple of years ago Jaguar (now Red Bull) almost had him but Ron Dennis fought hard to keep him which tells you something about Newey; the incident is what most likely cost Rahal his job.... Query:Are there any major aero changes for '07 or will the cars stay the same? If they stay the same I like KR's chances alot.... Unfortunately, in today's world of F1 the engineers are as important, probably more than, the drivers.... I wish they would raise the ride height 2-3 inches....
