(from autosport) (I do not believe for one second that Briatore does not have something up his sleeve, and it isn't a condom) Renault driver Fernando Alonso believes it is unrealistic to think the French squad will be able to fight for a place on the podium when the season starts next month. "We are very far, very far," Alonso was quoted as saying by AS newspaper. "I think it's looking like at the end of last year: two Ferraris, two McLarens and two BMWs, and if everything goes like that, you can almost only fight for seventh place. "Thinking about the podium would be too optimistic right now, but then you arrive in the first grand prix, you start warming up in practice, your morale starts going up and you think you can be on the podium. "But right now, thinking coldly, reaching the podium is a dream. "In our current shape it will be hard to make it into Q3," added the Spaniard. Alonso is returning to the French team after a season at McLaren. Renault, world champions in 2005 and 2006, struggled for pace last year, failing to win a race or score a pole position. Alonso believes Ferrari are still one of the main contenders for this year's titles, but they Spaniard reckons the Italian squad are not so far ahead of their rivals as some suggest. "Ferrari is one of the favourites but they are not on another planet. I think (the championship) is going to be close," he said. The two-time champion also admitted he has been surprised by BMW's strong form, despite the German team's early problems with their new car. "They are very fast with a lot of fuel," Alonso said. "Sometimes you look at their times, and you see what they've done in stints of 25 or 30 laps. That is, with 60 or 70 kilos of fuel. They have surprised me the most in the last two or three tests."
...well, Its "Alonso and Briattore" again but if we think they were really pushing it instead of sandbagging (the most logical thing IMHO, you just dont waste severely controlled testing time and kilometers on a real track)...then yes, they will have reasons to worry...but is too early to tell, I guess bigger concern is that Top teams will be even Faster once the years gets on, and "maybe" they dont have as much room for improvement... daddy...are we there yet?
My prediction is coming true. Alonso is already making excuses, and my prediction was that he will never win another WDC. Every year there are a couple of guys who shine. It was Alonso 3 years ago... but since then it's been Hamilton, Kimi and a couple others. This year and next it will be a few guys but one of them WON'T be Alonso. So his stock is sinking fast... I highly doubt he will ever have another competitive drive, especially if he starts the whining again!
well, they made him the highest paid F1 driver. about 2 mil plus per race. he should do something about the podiums at least.
SRT Mike - you're dead on. He's already setting up the reasons for his upcoming failure this season. Remy's right too. If I was Flavio and just agreed to make him the HIGHEST PAID DRIVER OUT THERE he better dang well get out there and perform, and put every ounce of sweat and blood into making that team a winner. But, we're talking about Alonso here......
Alonso needs to get his head out of the sand - how could he possible NOT have seen anything about the issues in Barcelona - those idiots who painted their faces and wore scribbled-on t-shirts were plastered all over the media from Autosport: Renault driver Alonso played down the incident as an isolated episode and sided with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, saying the campaign is unnecessary. "I don't think this is a racist country and the fans aren't either," Alonso was quoted as saying by AS newspaper. "Whoever says that there's racism in Spain is talking about isolated cases. "The less we talk about what happened 15 days ago the better, because that's a completely isolated case from someone who was celebrating carnival. I haven't seen any video or recording of the alleged insults." When asked if an anti-racism campaign was necessary, Alonso said: "No. It was an isolated incident and the FIA or anyone saying that the Spanish fans are racists is laughable." Alonso, who was Hamilton's teammate at McLaren last year, said he had not talked to the Briton. "No, I haven't met with him (Hamilton). Last year they called me a dog in a few races. Niki Lauda said those things about me and no one came to me to show me their support." * * * Carol
This guy is completely clueless. As for his jump from Mclaren ; sometimes when you are successful you begin to feel that you can do no wrong. That somehow it is truly YOU and not the combined circumstances. Lesson learned, hopefully at the back of the pack.
He's realistic, he's not DC who every year before the season starts says this is his year to win the championship.
To right he does , but I fear it's stuck in concrete. Like a child. Yes I will give him that in his RICH world.
He's hedging. What is he getting paid $46 million a year for? I can quite confidently say it's not to run their cars at the back of the pack (even though it would make me personally happy to see that). He's getting paid for racing results. If Renault was content to run in the middle or farther back, there are a lot of other drivers who could come a lot cheaper and with far less baggage. They're paying him to win. If the car is that bad, he should be working with the engineers to bring it up to speed, not running his mouth about failure before the season even kicks off.
Hmmm... Lauda called him a dog but the Spanish fans used racial slurs against Hamilton. Fred is seriously out of touch if he thinks this is a valid comparison or, even worse, if he thinks Lauda's comment justifies the actions of the racists.
Greatest Whiner that is . Alonso is good enough to be able score some podiums despite being in the lowly Renault. I don't know why he would say this other than to cover his back when he begins to get his @$$ kicked by the greatest F1 driver in existence, Kimi Raikkonen.
I would not stretch and say Alonso is the greatest, he may be in the top 7 of all time. But I do think he will podium at least twice this year due to attrition as long as the Renault is reliable. To all of you that think Alonso is that good, this will be the year for the world to make that determination. If he can take a mediocre car to the top, then he is that good. Just like I would like to Hamilton in a mediocre car, before I make any judgement on him. I am more likely to believe that Alonso is the better of the two.
he's only covering his arse in the likelyhood that the car is only capable of running midpack. but, even the best drivers (ie, Shumi) can only do so much if the car is subpar...the design began last year, if it is fundamentally crap, then future developments means little..
He's being paid that money because he is one of the top drivers in the world. He can develop and make a car a winner, he broke into F1 with Minardi, go look up his qualifying times/results and tell me he didn't have good stats for driving a Minardi. Then he went on to become a test driver for Renault helping develop that car, the following year he won is his first race putting my favorite driver(Schumi) a lap down. Then went on to win two championships. I agree he is no Schumacher but I do think he is the best driver in the field at currently developing a car. Can't wait for the season to begin, should be an interesting year.
