Mauro talks about Alonso

+1
heehee.

IIRC Ferrari even had and maybe still have ,the power to veto any rule they do not like.

 

That was in 2003, in 2004 the Michelin tyres just sucked.

IMO, the 2003 Michelin tyres always had been illegal (or at least extralegal). The morally reprehensible thing is that the guys of Bridgestone were aware from the beginning but waited to denounce it till the moment when they could do more harm.

 

Desoto is right 2003 the fat man from France was illegal all in 2003 ferrari didn't say anything till they needed to . 94 and 95 the best driver won it was a good team only thing illegal about them was they changed the sport because with refueling you could push all race long . The other teams were driver's and teams were not up to pushing all race long

 

MS took development and racing to a different level. I've yet to witness that level in other drivers since his reign.
He would even drive his 456 to the Modena Pizzeria at midnight to get the engineers some snacks. That's committment

 

I have said this before to my husband. Our drivers cannot keep driving around the problems, they have to point them out and make the engineers fix them and then we can make progress. He rightly pointed out that it is the engineers that make the problematic car in the first place, so it is not the fault of one or the other, but of everyone involved. We agreed on that, so I think Mauro is wrong to blame just Fernando Alonso. It is not good if he said everything was perfect and then changed his mind though. But now we may as well forget the past and move on with our new driver and our retaining driver who have both already said they are not going to settle for a problem car but try to make it better. I am happy for the future and I am not going to put all the blame on our past driver or any of the past engineers that are gone now, because it is the fault of all of them and all of Ferrari. Now we are looking to better times.

 

The cars are such integrated systems that fixing just one aspect isn't always possible. Combine that with the limits on testing and modifications and there just aren't the opportunities for quick fixes.

 

Proper prior planning prevents piss poor production.

 

This meme of late --- trying to blame Alonso for Ferrari ****ting out crap cars --- is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen on the interwebs. That's quite an accomplishment.

 

Makes no sense to me neither. Perhaps some folk see his amazing feats on track and assume that he can work miracles in other areas too.

 

+1000 million times.

Alonso proved he wasn't the problem, the issue has always been the machine Maranello has produced for last 5 years.


Where would Ferrari been the last 5 years had Alonso not been there to save the ship from humiliation? Something even Marco alluded before his sacking.

 

I think some of you are missing the point Mauro tries to make entirely.

He specifically said that Alonso is a brilliant man behind the wheel, but his feedback is lacking. He gets in the car at testing, declares the car great and when it's not quick during the actual races he points fingers.

Kimi is mocked often here by plenty of people calling him a lazy vodka swigging ice cream eater and that he has no interest in anything but driving about before ****ing off home or to his yacht as quick as possible, but from many of his (ex) co workers they've always complimented him greatly on his accurate feedback.

You guys are forgetting how important feedback is as actual (ex) F1 and le mans drivers such as Alan Mcnish have stressed plenty of times. They can put all the sensors they want on the cars but in the end, human feedback is still very much needed as the human does the actual driving. A computer can't tell what the driver wants. Mcnish told of something that happened a number of years ago when he was complaining the chassis wasn't right. The engineers waved their hands about and finally keeled over and did some tests. According to them and the computers, everything was fine. After a while they did bend over and made a new, identical chassis. They didn't tell Mcnish and as soon as he got in the car he said that this chassis was different. He went 4 tenths quicker and felt much more at hand.

The sensors really don't know everything, they sure do help but human feedback is massively important, especially now with limited testing even moreso.

A driver and an engineer have to work together well for everything to work and improvements be made. It's silly to solely blame Alonso but I do believe he shares part of the blame. I say that as someone who actually started to somewhat like Alonso over the last year orso....

 

I don't really get this kind of "blame culture" in the F1 fan base: "poor driver, he deserves a better car"; nobody says "poor engine guys, they deserve better aero". It´s like the teams are just generic hardware suppliers for the Drivers Championship. Drivers are employees of the team (quite often very well paid) so they win and loose together.

They should put an end to that BS of Drivers Championship, it´s only there because drivers are more marketeable for the masses, but I fail to understand why we, supposedly educated fans, keep worrying about that so much.

 

Perhaps blame is the wrong word.

 

Even if you believe that the problem was Alonso the responsibility was that of the management that hired and resigned him.
A new driver and a new car aren't going to fix what's wrong at Ferrari.

 

And that is why Ferrari have a new CEO, president, TP, designers, engineers and technicians. The management team that hired and resigned Alonso is gone. Let's hope that the new broom sweeps clean.

 

What a load of crap.

 

Amen!

 

We live in hope







As always.

 

As Pitpass pointed out Alonso topped the charts last year at this test too.

Having said that Seb is no Zo so the car must be better.

 

Forghieri is spot on. Alonso is a great driver but not a great developer. its two separate things to get the team behind you and then to actuall collaborate with the engineers and make sure you & team are going in the right direction. Schumacher knew how to do it and even Prost did... but in his case he was not strong enough to overcome the Italian ness of Ferrari - Schumacher was... untill the very end.

I would say that Alonso will have about the same resutls at McLaren - and even at Mercedes next year assuming he goes there.

when he has the best car - he can use it. but the Alonso of 2006 is not the guy today.

 

Hmmm...

Former Michelin boss Dupasquier:

Dupasquier hails Alonso's brilliance - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

"In our job, driver feedback is very important. Fernando has always been very precise in his comments. First of all, he has an incredible memory: he can recall the reference numbers of tyres used in a test several months previously. He does the first part of the technical analysis for us, making selections. That is a rare quality.


Tim Desham (Former Chief Designer at Renault, as quoted by Derek Daly when mentioning best drivers at technical feedback):

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=QVF3nSiNjL0C&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=alonso+technical+feedback&source=bl&ots=HTZlwkw0uQ&sig=MTxJHE1ymreXWnsWDn6v-X1BtWg&hl=es-419&sa=X&ei=8_fLVOGvH4HCgwSvnoDwAQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=alonso%20technical%20feedback&f=false

“From the design side, he’s the ideal driver that you want. When you ask him to test something, you want a black and white decision on whether it’s better or not. The last thing you want is a driver saying it’s better in this corner but maybe not in that one. Fernando is a positive driver in this and has always given us straight answers."

According to Stefano Domenicali back in 2009, Alonso was hired specifically for his ability to develop a car and motivate a team:

Alonso is better at development than Raikkonen, says Ferrari boss | James Allen on F1 ? The official James Allen website on F1

"Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has shed a little more light on the decision to drop Kimi Raikkonen and hire Fernando Alonso, saying that Alonso is a better development driver, more in the mould of Michael Schumacher and that is what the team needs....Referring to Raikkonen he said, 'In a car that is capable of winning, he was and is perfect. But if the car needs to be developed and the team fired up, Alonso is better.'”


Then you have people like Stewart, Massa, Smedley, Stella, Fisichella, Di Montezemolo, Webber, Trulli, Stoddart, Yasukawa, Briatore, Symonds, Lewis, and more...all of them people who probably know at least as much as Forghieri, all of which hailed Alonso as the best and the most complete and none of them mentioned things like: "but, of course, he ruined our team by being such a dumbass at technical feedback..."

FWIW, Gilles had this to say about Forghieri:

"he has the logical finesse of a sand viper... when the ferrari went well and all was perfect he considered me a very good driver, perhaps the best. When things went wrong I was an idiot".