+++ Of the current crop of drivers, I think Ferrari already has the dream team. Massa is still improving. (Flame suit on): Alonso is a has-been. Alonso got to be the youngest WDC winner, with a lot of help from the weird tire regs. But despite that, he did show skills on the track. (Even if he was a jerk off the track.) But even at the end of last year, under pressure from Shumi, the cracks started to appear. Now in the fight with Hamilton, we're seeing a "child star" desperate to make it as a grown-up -- so desperate that the ends justify the means. Ever see a drowning man pulling those around him under with him? Alonso had a meteoric rise in F1, and his fall looks to be as spectacular. Kimi is a fast driver, but seems to be too removed from the machine. Despite that, there are no quicker drivers in the field. Massa is doing this the old fashioned way -- he's not a "vunderkind" who can just sit down and be perfect without knowing why. He's learning his skills. In the long run, that may be far more dependable. Massa and Kimi complement each other's skills. Perhaps not quite as well as we'd like, and they might not have an ideal amount of direct cooperation, but they bring a good combination of skills for a team that's working at getting better. Many successful people are seen as being "jerks". (Just ask my co-workers. ) But it would appear that people on this board have bought off on the notion that being a jerk can *make* you successful. Just remember that those successful jerks may have put in a lot of effort you didn't see. Maybe it was that effort that made them jerks. Maybe it's the confidence that comes from prior successes that does it. But being a jerk is, if anything, a side effect, not a cause. I'm surprised at the hostility shown towards people who are working toward success *without* being a jerk. Look how happy everyone was to find the chrome wearing off Hamilton's press facade. Why does Massa get such hostility from tifosi? Because he's using hard work instead of "the force" to become a better driver? Because he contradicts those who think they can become successful just by being a jerk? I still think Massa has the potential to become a future world champion, and I would rate him one of the top drivers on the grid right now. I think Alonso's time is past. Massa and Kimi are about the best choices on the grid. (Both of the BMW drivers are individually pretty good, too; but I still think Massa and Kimi work well as a team.)
I think you're missing the point. Alonso was more than happy to benefit (knowingly) from stolen information. But when he couldn't beat his teammate (a rookie he should have crushed) he tried to use that information against his team to artificially slow his teammate and gain #1 status. How sleazy is that??? I'm not against him being #1 in the team but he should have negotiated that into his contract up front if he was good enough to deserve it. He complained McLaren didn't support him. He complained Renault didn't support him. It must be frustrating as hell to be a mechanic working all night on his car and to hear that trash. Ferrari is a great team and deserves better than that. Their current drivers have great speed and show a lot of class. I don't see the need to replace either of them with alonso. I can't believe you think the only reason people don't want him in the team is because he happened to finish ahead of Schumacher a couple of times...
Last word is for Montezzemolo, all our opinions are without importance, Luca wants the best for La Scudería, if is with Alonso OK, if is without Alonso also OK. saludos desde España.
Not entirely. F1 is all the advertising that Ferrari does, or needs to do. A driver that has the buying public against him 2 to 1 isn't good for sales. Ferrari can lose F1 races and still sell cars. Ferrari cannot lose its soul and still sell cars. The soul is what Ferraris are about.
At the start of the season I would'nt have thought twice and said yes I can't vote now. Business head says yes heart says no and I feel ferrari is more about passion and heart winning or losing. IMO FA has only showed me this year how good Hamilton really is dealing with him on track and off .
Yes of course. This is beginning to look like the perfect season! Ferrari WCC Alonso WDC (nearly) Alonso at Ferrari (nearly) So far we have one out of three, and the other two are close... The Alonso haters are IMHO mistaken if they think the vocal and repetitive witch hunt conducted on this board reflects the general opinion or feeling of global Ferrari fans, in particular the Italian ones. The Alonso haters are even more IMHO mistaken if they think Ferrari's racing and business decisions are in any way influenced by the opinions of a mostly anglo tabloid-informed group of so-called "supporters" who would even be ready to jump ship if Ferrari made a hiring decision contrary to their personal taste. And for the record, I believe the following: 1. Alonso is a personally unpleasant, arrogant and ungrateful young man with serious character flaws. He is also BY FAR the best driver and tester in F1 today. Hence the Ferrari interest, because Ferrari deserves and tries for the best. 2. Hamilton and his father are hypocrites, and their partial responsibility in this season's mess will one day be fully written. Hamilton is also a great driver, but not yet at Alonso's level. 3. Alonso will not go to Ferrari, alas. Renault seems like a good bet. 4. All the crap that has happened this season at McLaren is mostly Ron Dennis's fault. Alonso, De la Rosa, Hamilton and various brit engineers are all secondary actors in a massive screw-up by Mr. Dennis. Cheers P.S. Somebody posted on another thread that only 5% of supporters would favour Alonso at Ferrari. At this point the poster appears to be off by a factor greater than 6x.
Only one of us has announced his intention to no longer support Ferrari if their driver selection is not to your liking. My support of Ferrari is, and always has been, unwavering. For over 30 years. You wouldn't know what aTifosi was if it hit you in the face. Your viewpoints of my support of the team are as revisionist as your comments about my 355 ownership. Ooops, forget about that, didn't you? And some of us have a brain. You may shut up now.
Hitler? Mussolini? OJ Simpson? Jeffrey Dahmer? We are talking about Alonso for chrissake. You lump him in with mass murderers? Ridiculous. Do you think that Ferrari has never employed drivers with boorish off-trrack behavior?!? We are talking race drivers, not electing someone to be Pope. You guys are amazing, sometimes. Oh, by the way. While you are talking about Alonso cheating and being disqualified...might I point out that Ferrari hired one Michael Schumacher whose 1994 championship was aided by an illegal traction control device on his car and whose 1997 season was completely disqualified for...gasp...cheating by intentionally ramming his comeptition off the road. What was that you were saying about dangerous driving? Pretty selective memories around here
All of you people hating Alonso must be fairly new to the sport. If you are waiting for some squeeky clean driver to show up and win multiple WCs, then I will say don't hold your breath. All I am reading is that Alonso is a cheater, a liar, a cry baby, blah blah blah. Welcome to Formula 1. To be a multiple time Champ at this level, it comes with the territory. If you go back through history, just about every single multiple WC has had some level of controversy surrounding them at some time or another. My all time favorite driver Senna has done many things in his career that were heavily questioned by the fans and media at the time - bottom line is he did whatever he had to do to win. We look back at him now and remember his WCs - all of the negative stuff gets washed away over time. So many people thought Lewis was some kind of breath of fresh air, that he handles himself well - you wait - his true competitive colors have already started to show, and will show even brighter down the road. If Alonso joined Ferrari, and went on to win multiple WCs with them - 10 years from now we'd be saying what a great driver he was, what a great Ferrari driver he was. All of this meaningless BS I am hearing nowadays would be non existent.
Schumacher negated his deal with Benetton to move to Ferrari one season early. His reason for voiding the contract? He used a clause in his contract which stated that he could terminate his deal if the team acted in a manner that harmed his reputation, to wit their use of illegal traction control in 1994. Never mind that it took him a full season to suddenly have an attack of moral outrage. Never mind that the beneficiary of the illegal traction control was Schumacher himself. Where is the "outrage" amongst the "moralists" on this thread? Alonso did nothing that Schumacher hadn't also done. Drivers look out for themselves, end of story. You can spin all this teary-eyed romantic drivel about "team player" but it is nonsense. There is no such thing amongst F1 drivers. Drivers care only about winning, anything else and you are deluding yourself. Drivers, Schumacher included, are only team players insofar as it benefits themselves. I find it extremely hypocritical for people here to talk about morality and integrity while at the same time supporting Ferrari's signing of Schumacher. This is nonsense, pure and simple. And anyone who says that their support of Ferrari ends with the signing of a particular driver, ANY driver has completely and eternally lost the right to call themselves a Tifosi. My support of the team never wavered when they signed Schumacher and it has never wavered with their signing of Massa. I support Ferrari no matter who the drivers and I expect them to sign the best available drivers no matter who they are. I know you to be a real Tifosi, no matter what you say now, and I know you will continue to be if they sign Alonso...but there are a whole lot of fair-weather Ferrari fans here who ought to move their traitorous arses over to some other sites now because they have no right to be here among the true Ferrari faithful. ***Yes, 355, I am talking to you***
+1 Its amazing how many Ferrari fans don't know squat about the history of the company, the team, or the man. And PS: "the man" isn't Michael Schumacher
+1 I think there are a few reasons for this. For one this is largely a US based chat site. F1 is not very well known in the US. So I'm guessing that quite a few folks on here became interested in F1 during the Schumacher-Ferrari years when he was winning the championships and the race took place in Indy. MS made it very easy for a new fan to become an instant "expert" at F1: Your prediction for the next race or even the title would be MS on Ferrari. And in most cases you were right. No need to dig into the nineties and learn about MS' or the team's past. Or even into something so archaic as the eighties. Eighties? Yes, I believe there was some form of F1 at that time. Can't be older than that, but eighties sounds about right...
Same here. I also miss the sevenites, the time when I got hooked in F1. It was funny when I visited the Hungarian GP this year: Honestly I got a bigger kick out of the historic F1 cars than the current ones. Didn't matter that they were piloted by amateurs. I guess I'm getting older.
I have to pepeat myself: everybody here agrees in that Alonso is Alonsohole, Unfairnando, a son of a b*tch, etc... That´s out of the question. But what do you think about the potential "inestabilization" problem wich can bring Alonso? Would the team survive to it? Would be the end of Jean Todt as team principal? And what would Raikkonen think about this? Is Alonso worth all this "collateral damages"?
Nope, not everyone here agrees to the silly names that have been made for Alonso - you got that wrong. As far as if Alonso would join Kimi at Ferrari, there could be potential problems, since they are both number 1 status drivers. He'd be a better fit with Massa as a team mate.
I think that Alonshole even with Sato as a teammate at Ferrari spells disaster. The damage he is going to cause for years to come is not worth even another Drivers title.
