Is It Safe To Come Out Yet?
It took exactly 0.3 seconds for the Internet to explode in a mass of anti-Alonso vitriol following todays qualifying in Budapest. And in some ways that’s to be expected, because although it is said ‘that a picture paints a thousand words’, F1 fans are not seeing the full vista when it come to Formula 1 broadcasting. It was Ross Brawn who rightly pointed out earlier in the year that:
It’s very frustrating to watch a race and not have that information which is available to everyone at the track.
He’s not wrong there and I’d suggest McLaren are their own worst enemies when it comes to restricting information. If the team were open with their radio traffic, it’s almost certain that a good majority of todays bad publicity could have been avoided.
As it was, almost everybody called it as they saw it, and what they saw painted Alonso in a pretty bad light. Later in the day, McLaren’s Ron Dennis contradicted assumptions that Alonso was at fault and instead laid the blame squarely at Hamilton’s door. Claiming Lewis had in fact deliberately ignored team orders allowing Fernando to pass. The final twist in the tail came from the race stewards late this evening, when they announced that Alonso would get a 5 place grid drop and McLaren would be denied the possibility of constructors points.
Phew. F1 really didn’t need this right now, did it?
Lewis Hamilton has fallen considerably lower in my opinion today, but not for ignoring team orders, instead for his post qually comments when he said:
I’m not angry. I’m curious as to what’s gone on and I find it quite interesting and amusing.
Amusing eh? Screwing your team and your team mate in one fell swoop? Good one. Fernando fares no better in all of this though, he absolutely should have let the team deal with Hamilton in the post-qually debrief, taking matters into his own hands was unnecessary and unsporting.
Tomorrows race is going to be fun, the gloves have come off and Alonso has got a battle on his hands. While Macca are appealing the decision to freeze their constructors points – which after reading the stewards reasoning for the penalty, I’d have to agree seems a little unfair. Here’s the quote:
The actions of the team in the final minutes of Qualifying are considered prejudicial to the interests of the competition and to the interests of motor sport generally.
This refers to the initial 20 seconds that Fernando was held behind the lollipop. I fail to see why this would be an issue, they clearly wanted him out as close to the end of session as possible, but it hardly against the spirit of competition is it?
And can anyone please tell me why it took until almost 11pm for the stewards to reach this decision? What’s that, nine hours to watch a video and talk to four people?
Finally, you do have to ask what big Ron has to do to catch a break these days? The poor man lurches from crisis to crisis, firefighting at each turn, yet none of it is a result of any wrongdoing by the man himself.
Bootnote: The ‘muppets of the day award’ still has to go to the Ferrari mechanics though. They managed to send Massa off down the pit lane, sans-fuel. Well done children, gold stars all round!
You shouldn’t let him...
August 5th, 2007 at 04:00 #1 - brendan stallard said:
I’m a bit confused as to how Hamilton has screwed his team mate. Can you explain that one, please?
Alonso’s own pit team knew that pole was tainted. I’ve got the video of their “celebrations”. They knew it was a bent pole.
brendan
August 5th, 2007 at 04:38 #2 - FT said:
Hey, yeah, me again, the one with the long comments
Today is a sad, sad day, for several reasons.
Once again, McLaren is getting punished for the actions of some individuals (in this case, mostly Alonso and a few other guys). Why are they getting stripped from constructor’s points? Only the stewards know. What’s clear though is that for the last couple of seasons, every time another team other than Ferrari is leading towards the end, funny things happen.
Now, Ferrari has nothing to do with this, let’s be clear, objective, and honest. No, this time, McLaren’s own enemies come from within, sadly. However, the typical punishment for obstructing or blocking typically is stripping the driver of his 3 best times (it would effectively put Alonso on 10th), or sending him to the back of the grid. How was that decision of affecting also the team was made? Only God knows…
I have been more and more concerned over the last weeks about Alonso’s behaviour and constant whining, and I was hoping he would at least maintain his head up and at least finish the season with some dignity. But no, today, sadly, he pulled a “Schumacher”, and I have effectively lost any respect I might have had for him. For years I was sad and mad to see someone like Schumacher do all sorts of dirty little tricks effectively damaging the sport. That’s something I have always hated, and I don’t like drivers doing stuff like that, regardless of the team for whom they drive. So, even though I am a McLaren fan (have been for 25 years), what Alonso did today was despicable, and he deserves a punishment greater than just getting sent to the 6th position.
Clearly Ron has multiple issues to deal with, and boy, he really needs to fire his HR manager! I mean, look at the people that they hire!
For starters, Hamilton deserves to be spanked, really bad. Bad, bad boy! If you are told to go to the pits, you do it! Period! Yeah, you want to win, yeah, you are a driver, but hell yeah, YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE at the end, wheter you like it or not boy!. Now, fortunately, his conduct is just the one of a kid that still needs to mature and understand a thing or two about the sport, so, I am not that concerned there.
But Alonso… oh boy, when did you become a honorary member of the “Schumacher” club of “win at any cost, for good, or bad”? Taking justice in his own hands, KNOWING the media and the whole world is on top of McLaren right now, was just probably the worst call of this young man’s career. I think he is talented, but he definitely is a whiner, and his ego and fears have been blinding him lately.
Today’s actions and controversy might actually end up damaging McLaren at the International Court of Appeal because their credibility will now be questioned.
Now, I believe in Dennis and what he said to the press today regarding Hamilton starting the fire. Lots of people won’t believe in him and criticize him as always. But boy, he really has a tough task ahead of him. The main problem though is that now the team will be in a much worse position to fight the rest of the season, not only becaue ot this latest sanction and the possible spy-saga outcome, but because clearly the environment within the team is just terrible.
I seriously think that it is time for Fernando to go. Yes, as drastic as that, because what he did today was done at the very worst moment, and not for one split second he thought about the team and all the implications his actions would have, and at the end, whether he likes it or not, he is also a simple employee that is given the opportunity to shy. If he can’t prove himself and beat his rookie teammate, that’s pretty much his problem, not McLaren’s! And no, this isn’t about “oh well, Lewis always has less fuel, so that’s why he is faster”. This is about Alonso not accepting that Lewis is better. It’s an ego problem, and we all know and have witnessed what an out-of-control ego does to a driver over time, right Schu?
Not that he is not looking elsewhere anyway! It is pretty clear he has been lately talking to Briattore. I mean, out of nowhere Briattore starts slamming McLaren and demanding that it gets excluded of the championship with a very lame and stupid excuse (he seems to think McLaren designed and built the car after April 28th). So now he is friends with Todt again or what? Ah Flav… we all know how mad you are at Ron for taking your kid away from you, and, you shouldn’t really question other teams, because we all know all the shaddy things that have happened at your teams too, especially when it was called Bennetton, remember?. Briattore and Alonso are definitely up to something, and I really hope it means that Alonso’s contract with McLaren will end up earlier than expected.
Sadly, the outcome of all this will be that Lewis will most likely win (totally deserved), Heidfield and Raikkonen will most likely be 2nd and 3rd (in whichever order), and most likely Alonso in 4th, loosing only 5 points to Lewis, but most importantly, McLaren loosing valuable constructor points.
In all fairness, the outcome should be: Lewis scoring 10 points, Alonso NONE at all, and Lewis’ 10 points going also to McLaren’s constructors tally.
But, oh well, that will most likely not happen, courtesty of H.R.H. Fernando Alonso Schumi the II.
Thanks a lot pal!
August 5th, 2007 at 10:25 #3 - Christine said:
My favourite bit was when Ferrari knocked the tyres halfway across the pit lane. Genius! I thought they were supposed to be pit stop specialists!
August 5th, 2007 at 11:04 #4 - me said:
brendan, the second hamilton ignored that first order to pull over he screwed his teammate. i’m not saying that alonso didn’t screw him back ‘double’, but hamilton hurt everyone in the team when he did that including the bloke in the other car.
the mechanics look immediately after the flag dropped was priceless.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:11 #5 - shaun said:
I thought he would get punished; and quite right to.The championship is so close now it looked like things were bound to get dirty; and they did in yesterdays qualifying.Imagine if that had been Michael Schumacher!.He would have been slagged off big time!!.But at the end of the day despite the “Red Barron” not driving, underhand tactics are still taking place….good!.GP racing is tough and hard and the drivers and teams are not in the girl guides, they are ruthless and dirty!.Always have been, always will be!, thats what makes it what it is! – and i love it.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:12 #6 - me said:
FT, in defense of Alonso. i do not think his actions were ‘win at all costs’ schumacher-esque actions. they had nothing to do with getting pole / winning the race.
it was all about stuffing a teammate that he was angry with.
i’m with you 100% on the flav thing though.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:16 #7 - me said:
shaun, agreed. it’s all food for thought (and discussion).
i am sick of the tardy work of the stewards though. they never reveal a fraction of the information we need to know, and they took so long yesterday you have to question if they weren’t cooking up some dick-dastardly plans?
August 5th, 2007 at 17:06 #8 - FT said:
Numbers, funny numbers!
So, following up on this mess and the sanction to McLaren, I was just doing my numbers and couldn’t help but notice, that once again, for the 3rd straight championship, when a team seems to be set to win the champ (driver’s or constructor’s), the FIA comes up with one of its ridiculous and lame sanctions.
Now, I won’t go as far as to think that it is all done just to favour Ferrari (although there’s a bit of it into this), but what definitely the FIA has been doing is coming up with this stupid sanctions to take the championship to the wire and avoid having spectators that lose the interest on the championship at the end (right, Mr. Ecclestone and Mr. Mosley?).
If that “out of nowhere” sanction applied to McLaren wouldn’t have existed, with today’s results, McLaren would be 34 points ahead of Ferrari on the constructor’s champ. Now, if I can still add and my brain doesn’t fail me
, there’s 6 races left, and with that point difference, Ferrari would need to win the next 5 races 1-2 to overcome the deficit and expect to have a chance to win it at the very last race. Although Ferrari currently has the faster car, a 1-2 result for 5 straight races (and expecting McLaren to fail scoring 3-4 results on those races) is, based on how the championship has evolved, very, very unlikely to happen.
So, basically, the “F1 daemons” have once again promptly used their calculators at the first chance they had.
Now, I wonder, isnt’ manipulating the championship like that (wheter it’s the driver’s or che constructor’s) also “prejudicial to the itnerests of the competition and motor sport generally?”.
All this is happening because of the horrible qualifying format that we have now on F1. Lots of people love it, and I really don’t understand why, because it allows the teams to come up with all these stupid tweaks to try to win on strategy. The old qualifying format where each driver would do a single lap with no traffic was perfect because it allowed us to see the real skills of every driver and it just made the whole qualifying more fair. How many sanctions have we had already because of these “obstructions”, “impendings”, “blockings”?. It was obvious from the very begining that this was going to be the case with this qualifying format, so what the hell does the FIA want?
They seem to be forgetting that, just as this is a huge business for Mr. Ecclestone (and, Mr. Mosley of course
), it is also a business for the teams, and they will do whatever it takes to win. Hence all these strategies.
Don’t want that to happen again? Simple, then change the regulations to forbid teams from holding up cars on the pitlane, as simple as that!, but DO NOT COME UP with this lame and stupid sanctions that only damage the sport even further!
August 5th, 2007 at 17:30 #9 - FT said:
Following up again…
I just read Norbert Haug is pushing for Dennis and the team not to appeal the sanction. I honestly don’t understand his position. Is he nuts?
With today’s tally, McLaren would have a 90% chance of wining the constructor’s championship.
It is fairly clear Ferrari are stronger at the moment, so 19 points can vanish very, very easily. Ferrari will be very strong at Turkey, Italy, Brazil and China at the least. McLaren always does very well at Spa, although, this season seems to be a bit “reverse” in that sense (i.e. usually where Ferrari did very good, like Indy and Hungary, has been McLaren territory, and vice versa).
The team should definitely appeal, because that sanction is unfair. The team had nothing to do with the 2 drivers playing their little-kid games.
August 6th, 2007 at 20:33 #10 - brendan stallard said:
“Norbert Haug is pushing for Dennis and the team not to appeal the sanction. I honestly don’t understand his position. Is he nuts?”
FT,
No.
Looking at the current numbers: McLaren would have to fall down a hole to lose, and Ferrari do very, very well.
The appeals court for FIA: have a terrible habit of whacking out a doubled sentence to those who appeal.
I do agree: they do have a habit of making some strange decisions toward season end.
brendan
August 7th, 2007 at 02:28 #11 - FT said:
Brendan,
No, McLaren does not have to fall into a hole to lose. With only a 19 points difference, Ferrari would be able to pass them scoring 3 one-two finished in the next 6 races. Ferrari will be very strong at Turkey, Italy and Brazil, so they can very easily achieve that.
Now, if McLaren would not be stripped of these 15 points from Hungary, the 34 point difference would mean that Ferrari would need 5 one-two finished in the next 6 races. The probability of that is a lot, LOT smaller.
And, I think that’s exactly the calculation that “some people” did on Saturday afternoon. Then, all they had to do was to phone the stewards, and that was it.
For the last 3 seasons, when it has been very clear that Ferrari will have it tough to win the champ, very strange things happen with the points.
Now, if the FIA wants to be fair, then they should strip Ferrari of their 14 points scored at Australia for using an illegal car. Whatever Ferrari says, that car was illegal, period.
That would make things even agian
F.