Montezemolo starts in on the Alonso bashing . . .

I am not a fan of Fernandos personality either but I still think he was the most complete of the recent F1 drivers right until the end...
As of his second McLaren stint: looking at the progress Honda made since leaving McLaren it is easy to see that McLaren was the problem rather than Honda so until McLaren would have changed their attitude and actually listened to Honda what they think would be best there was not a chance that things improve.
Not Alonsos fault and when people think he was unmotivated one should just imagine how "some other drivers" would have reacted at the mess at McLaren when looking how they react when something just gets A LITTLE BIT wrong

 

Yes, one can say that Ron Dennis didn't give preference to Alonso, although he was more experienced that Hamilton, that's true.
Dennis let Hamilton assert himself and allowed his 2 drivers to fight each other at the detriment of the team that missed on a title probably.
There were epic fights to watch that year, and many enjoyed them, I certainly did! .
Similarly Frank Williams allowed a war to develop between Piquet and Mansell, that benefited Prost from McLaren who won the title that year.
The problem with giving team orders is this: damn if you do, damn if you don't!!!

People today blame Mercedes for orchestrating its strategy to serve Hamilton most of the time, but are of the opinion that McLaren doing exactly that would have been OK. I'm puzzled, really.

 

I suspect it's Honda more than Ron Dennis who wanted Alonso at McLaren. Ron Dennis must have had many misgivings about the whole business, taking back a driver who had created discord in the team, co-operated with the FIA to denounce his employer during the Spygate affair and cost them a $100M fine.

That the partnership was difficult wasn't in question, but instead of trying to solve problem behind close doors, Alonso enjoyed humiliating his team and Honda in public, exposing his nonchalence to discredit both his employer and its engine Partner. That is unexcusable. Honda was paying him $40M a year, and he kept badmouthing them at any occasion. That's simply bitting the hand that feeds you and showing no loyalty.

Alonso started to plot to sever links with Honda, and after Zak Brown joined as CEO following Dennis' departure, he convinced him to switch to Renault.
McLaren immediatly lost $100M of sponsorship per year, and had to buy its engines.
This Indy business was just a distraction, with Brown indulging Alonso in the hope of keeping him.

Whichever way you look at it, Alonso left a trail of destruction behind him.

 

I suspect it's Honda more than Ron Dennis who wanted Alonso at McLaren. Ron Dennis must have had many misgivings about the whole business, taking back a driver who had created discord in the team, co-operated with the FIA to denounce his employer during the Spygate affair and cost them a $100M fine.

That the partnership was difficult wasn't in question, but instead of trying to solve problem behind close doors, Alonso enjoyed humiliating his team and Honda in public, exposing his nonchalence to discredit both his employer and its engine Partner. That is unexcusable. Honda was paying him $40M a year, and he kept badmouthing them at any occasion. That's simply bitting the hand that feeds you and showing no loyalty.

Alonso started to plot to sever links with Honda, and after Zak Brown joined as CEO following Dennis' departure, he convinced him to switch to Renault.
McLaren immediatly lost $100M of sponsorship per year, and had to buy its engines.
This Indy business was just a distraction, with Brown indulging Alonso in the hope of keeping him.

Whichever way you look at it, Alonso left a trail of destruction behind him.

 

The truth hurts.

 

You can say that again. Actually you did.

 

The pot calling the kettle black......................

 

With the crap cars we produced for Alonso while he was at Ferrari, Montezemolo should be grateful he stayed around to drag two close finishes for world championships and plenty of wins whilst driving a car that didn’t deserve to be in the top five. Alonso’s political style behind the scenes doesnt change the fact that while he was at Ferrari, he treated us to the sight of one of the worlds most complete drivers for that period driving around issued that would’ve had the lesser drivers of today parking up and throwing their toys out the pram (posting their telemetry on Twitter, crashing into rivals, threatening to go home, park it, whining at their mechanics, refusing to learn how to work their own steering wheel, missing briefings etc...... sound familiar?)

 

Who are you talking about?

 

Couldn’t say.... I’m bound to get told off...... the red faces are waiting for a slip up to start crying!

 

or maybe even get a ban...

 

I completely agree. If you look at each team he's been in ( except Miniardi) he's left them utterly broken. when he left Renault - they imploded, McLaren, Ferrari... and McLaren again... he's corrosive on the team.

I listened to the entire podcast yesterday with Monetzemolo ( highly recommend it ) and all Montezemolo said was that Alonso was not as close to the team in the bad times. He did not support the team ( the actual people ) instead pointed fingers trying to put pressure on people. I think Alonso was good, but never great.

 

All those teams were already in a decline when Alonso got there, except McLaren on his first stint.

 

Lol you’re funny. What color is the sky where you live? How many moons do you have ???

 

Bennetton / Renault was WDC 2x and then nothing... or perhaps it was that key people from the team left? and Alonso could not deliver?

 

Yeah, Alonso got his 2 WDC at Renault and then he left. it's the team that hasn't been able to deliver after he left.

 

any links to the podcast?

 

Thanks, just listened to it

 

It’s on the F-1 website I joined the website so they send out emails all the time this was one of them


Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat