7 years since Ferrari's last WDC

Luca di Montezemolo is like the Oakland A's Billy Beane. He hates loosing more than he loves winning. But, eventually heads will roll.

The FIA's current willingness to change rules during the season means there is no rush to hold feet to the fire with in the team (yet).

 

2007 to 2011 isn't 7 years.

 

beat me to it!

 

Me too.

 

ferrari would be dominant if they had listened to kimi and fixed the car to do what he wanted rather than telling him he should adapt his driving to suit the car. Ferrari would have also won it last year had they not bumbled the strategy for alonso.

 

+1 but we can give Rick a bit of leeway since he knows his F1 better than most.

 

I knew it was a Freudian slip...

 

Its okay, Kimi's win was more luck than anything else ...

Pete

 

Agreed, Iwas , as I assumed others were, just joking around.

Mark

 

Those where storied years for us and mostly boring to McLaren fans (although I'm a fan of sorts of all the teams) and imho they were only made possible by MS and his 150% dedication. Alonso is great driver no doubt but the only driver I have ever seen who had the TEAM commitment is MS with AP and AS a close second. I simply just do not see or feel the commitment in Alonso as I/we did in Schumacher.

Ferrari needs to find another young driver who will eat,sleep and breath the team once again such as Schumacher did.

JMHO,
Gregg

 

I'm not doubting Alonso's commitment at winning but I still feel hard pressed to believe it is anywhere near Schumachers. I still have some underlying reservations about Alonso which stem from his espionage against Ferrari while at McLaren. As a driver yes he is good but as a trustworthy person I do not trust him as far as I could throw him. I remember saying I would loose my support of the team if Alonso ever drove for my beloved Ferrari and that stemmed from me being a driver supporter but I could not find it within myself not to support the team regardless of the drivers.

 

We all know some (most) of Ferrari's and Michael's success came from his relentless testing and valuable feedback to the engineers. I wonder... If unlimited testing were still permissiable under the rules, would Alonso be the one doing all those miles??? Some say he is an excellent car development driver...

Unfortunately we will never know.

 

Yes it is very unfortunate concerning the ludicrous (imho) no testing ban and I believe Alonso's skills would shine through to bad we will never know. I'm compelled to dust off an old tape from the early '80's and relive the glory years lol.

 

Seriously? Ferrari screwed Alonso out of a championship last season and he still says how happy he is to retire with the team at the end of his career. How is that NOT eating, sleeping, and breathing the team?

He drives his heart out every race with a junk car and has never spoken more highly of a team during his F1 career. I don't think you're going to find another driver currently in F1 that is more of a team player.

I'll gladly eat my words if I'm wrong, but Ferrari and Alonso is about the best match you're going to get in F1 right now.

 

Early in his career, Jensen Button jumped ship from Williams into Honda when he thought he'd get a faster car and a better shot at a WDC. People thought him a playboy that was more concerned with grid girls than grid position, and a man of fickle loyalties. Well, he spent a great many years supporting Honda and demonstrating his loyalty before people quietened down about that.

Admittedly, I initially was very uneasy about Alonso coming to Ferrari and predicted some sort of meltdown if things didn't go his way. I think Alonso needs to be the undisputed #1 driving in the team and not having this status seems to be his pet peeve (or trigger?). Obviously he has this special status, so he's happy and gets along well with the Ferrari team.

Fortunately for Alonso and us, he's fast enough that Massa isn't a serious threat to him throughout a season.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

You guys are mentioning about commitment, but bear in mind, with the in season testing ban, there's only so much a driver can commit. I'm very sure if there's no testing ban, Ferrari, and Mclaren, and Merc won't have allowed Red Bull to run away this season.

 

Ferrari is an Italian team. When he was hired, Alonso learned Italian, and he is now fluent.

Schumacher has still not gone beyond "buongiorno" and "ciao".

How's that for commitment?

 

+1

I think Alonso has done a great job with the supporting cast he has to work with. Michael had Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne and also caught Adrian Newey in a slump in 2000-2004. Michael is one of the all time greats, but Fernando's commitment is not the problem right now.

 

Actually, he knew Italian before Ferrari hired him...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMjknmNdvrM[/ame]

 

Where were you in the 80's and 90's??
You must have been in sheer agony.

 

Michael has Brawn now, how's that working out for him??

 

Lol, Button tried to leave Honda and go back to Williams but couldn't do it in the end as his contract wouldn't allow it.