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Garry Nelson's Left Foot

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,238
tokyo
I don't think that's true. Alonso knows how good he was and how much of his career he spent in the wrong cars. He's made bigger mistakes off the track than he ever did on it. Let's face it, he fell out with pretty much every team he raced with. If he'd stayed at Ferrari then I suspect he may well have won the 2017 and 2018 championships that Vettel messed up when Ferrari was often faster than the Merc.

Alonso had a chance in 2 title chasing teams when at McLaren and Ferrari and had his contract cancelled by mutual consent both times. On both occasions he went on to join uncompetitive teams.

So now with all the hype about Lewis being the GOAT or whatever else he finds that very hard to swallow, I think it's more about achievements than Hamilton personally. He often ends his aloof interviews saying how good Hamilton is. I think he is genuinely enjoying Hamilton being in the midfield because it echoes his career in uncompetitive cars. At least he's getting a bit of attention though with Lewis near him.

Hmmm. I've always found any praise he's given Hamilton to be grudging.

Maybe that's a case of the 'Lawrenson's' where many fans think he doesn't like or talk about his time at the Albion and confirmation bias confirms it for us. I'll have to pay more attention when he's talking about Hamilton.
 






Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,953
Hove
Hmmm. I've always found any praise he's given Hamilton to be grudging.

Maybe that's a case of the 'Lawrenson's' where many fans think he doesn't like or talk about his time at the Albion and confirmation bias confirms it for us. I'll have to pay more attention when he's talking about Hamilton.

My take is that Alonso believes he is Hamilton's equal and the only reason they are not equal on success is decisions they made off the track not on it - and perhaps he is right because Alonso has been an exceptional F1 driver. He's often commenting dryly on Hamilton's dabbling with fashion, or whatever, and I think a lot of that is his dry sense of humour, but when it comes down to racing and talent, he often has a lot of praise, but he's not the type for hyperbole every time someone sticks a mic at him and asks him about LH.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,025
Uckfield
Post-Monaco rumour mill. I don't think there's anything in these, but:

- Bit of a rumour that Mick Schumacher might get the boot from Haas - potentially immediately.

- Also some talk that Ricciardo's position at McLaren may not be secure for the rest of the season. Personally think that's a bit stretch that they would drop him mid-season - far more plausible that they trigger an eject clause at the end of the season.

Over on the F1 Reddit, the above two then sparked off some wild speculation of a multi-seat-swap. My favourite was Schumacher out, Ricciardo to Haas, Alonso to McLaren, Piastri to Alpine. Where do they come up with this stuff? :eek:
 


Bry Nylon

Test your smoke alarm
Helpful Moderator
Jul 21, 2003
19,972
Playing snooker
Post-Monaco rumour mill. I don't think there's anything in these, but:

- Bit of a rumour that Mick Schumacher might get the boot from Haas - potentially immediately.

I don't follow F1 nearly as much as I used to but when I saw Schumacher completely write-off a second car through another unforced error after just 7 rounds of the season, I did wonder if Haas might decide they can't afford to keep him anymore. He doesn't just break cars - he utterly destroys them.
 






Garry Nelson's Left Foot

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,238
tokyo
My take is that Alonso believes he is Hamilton's equal and the only reason they are not equal on success is decisions they made off the track not on it - and perhaps he is right because Alonso has been an exceptional F1 driver. He's often commenting dryly on Hamilton's dabbling with fashion, or whatever, and I think a lot of that is his dry sense of humour, but when it comes down to racing and talent, he often has a lot of praise, but he's not the type for hyperbole every time someone sticks a mic at him and asks him about LH.

I'll pay closer attention. I think what you say all makes sense and also explains my view. I've probably taken the 'I'm his equal' along with the lack of gushing praise combined with the odd comment on the extra curricular stuff and interpreted it as anti Hamilton. It's easy then to take whatever he says as begrudging.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,025
Uckfield
I don't follow F1 nearly as much as I used to but when I saw Schumacher completely write-off a second car through another unforced error after just 7 rounds of the season, I did wonder if Haas might decide they can't afford to keep him anymore. He doesn't just break cars - he utterly destroys them.

Have to admit I was expecting Mick to step up a bit more by now. To be fair to him, from the outside that crash in Monaco looked odd. The way the car stepped out where it did and how the rear end broke off completely, my immediate reaction was "did something break on the car?", but there's been no news of that being the case. Current theory seems to be that he was just slightly off the dry line and lost it on a damp patch.


Mick is getting his arse royally kicked by someone who wasn't considered good enough for F1 not so long ago.

Magnussen was not "not considered good enough" for F1. He lost his F1 seat at Haas for financial reasons. Why do you think they immediately went back to him when they ditched Mazepin and the financial squeeze wasn't such an issue? Magnussen is a good mid-grid driver. There's others on the grid I'd ditch before I would be getting rid of Magnussen: Latifi, Stroll, Mick Schumacher (unfortunately, had high hopes for him), Zhou, Tsunoda, Vettel (!). Yes, I put Vettel in that group.Also, as much as it pains me to say it, on current form Ricciardo has a big ? next to his name. His struggles last year are well documented and could be forgiven. The struggles this year? Not so sure any more - either his confidence is gone and he can't find his way back, or he simply isn't suited to the new cars. He either needs to change team for 2023 (Vettel retires, Ricciardo to Aston Martin?) and have an opportunity to prove the McLaren car was at fault, or his time in F1 is up and he needs to look at Formula E or Indycar. Either way, I think his prospects of finding his way into a title winning car are now gone for good - which is a shame, when he was at Red Bull he looked every bit a future WDC but they didn't have the engine they needed.

As a patriotic support of Aussie drivers in F1 it's been a frustrating period. We had Webber driving title-winning cars but simply not quite good enough to get the job done, and then when Ricciardo was given his seat it coincided with new rules and both Red Bull and Renault dropping the ball and leaving him without the car to put a campaign together.
 




Marty___Mcfly

I see your wicked plan - I’m a junglist.
Sep 14, 2011
2,251
Danny Ric has done a good job of being in the wrong car at the wrong time. In terms of competing for championships. Reminds me of Alonso in that regard (post Reno).

His best chance was to stay at Red Bull but I can see that Max and Christian are absolute tools and it must have been torture dealing with them on a daily basis so I don’t blame him for leaving that particular hellhole.

He should be able to do a job at McLaren but it could be another case of the younger generation drivers showing up the old guard. Lando will have physically faster reaction times and a greater appetite for risk- that’s just science, Honey Badger needs to deploy his experience and wisdom to overcome that but he just never seems to be firing in all cylinders. Let’s see what he can do the rest of the season then maybe look at binning him off for another young upstart.
 


Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,953
Hove
I'll pay closer attention. I think what you say all makes sense and also explains my view. I've probably taken the 'I'm his equal' along with the lack of gushing praise combined with the odd comment on the extra curricular stuff and interpreted it as anti Hamilton. It's easy then to take whatever he says as begrudging.

It's certainly the way he comes across, but that is my take on it anyway.

What Alonso's career does show you is that you cannot burn bridges or make too much noise in F1. If you want a seat at a top team, you have to be able to slot into the politics of the team and integrate yourself into everything they do. Unfortunately, despite being still one of the most talented drivers out there, top teams won't touch him. It's a shame for him, and a shame for F1 that we've missed much of his career without him being in a competitive car. He's only got himself to blame though.
 


Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,953
Hove
Danny Ric has done a good job of being in the wrong car at the wrong time. In terms of competing for championships. Reminds me of Alonso in that regard (post Reno).

His best chance was to stay at Red Bull but I can see that Max and Christian are absolute tools and it must have been torture dealing with them on a daily basis so I don’t blame him for leaving that particular hellhole.

He should be able to do a job at McLaren but it could be another case of the younger generation drivers showing up the old guard. Lando will have physically faster reaction times and a greater appetite for risk- that’s just science, Honey Badger needs to deploy his experience and wisdom to overcome that but he just never seems to be firing in all cylinders. Let’s see what he can do the rest of the season then maybe look at binning him off for another young upstart.

Talent rather than age I reckon. Ricciardo rather elevated his reputation finishing ahead of a fading Vettel when both at Red Bull to the extent I think Ricciardo has been seen as a faster driver than he actually is. I think Norris is just faster as Versappen was when in the same team. Only my opinion but I don't think he's ever quite been up there with the very best talent wise. He threw his toys out of the pram, yes because it may have been difficult at Red Bull, but Max was faster and he just couldn't handle that, just like the aforementioned Alonso couldn't handle it when Hamilton was faster at McLaren.
 






Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Sad that Alonso seems so proud of this

6E4D08FE-C934-447C-875B-1D2E3ADFC5F4.jpeg
 


maltaseagull

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2009
13,103
Zabbar- Malta
Post-Monaco rumour mill. I don't think there's anything in these, but:

- Bit of a rumour that Mick Schumacher might get the boot from Haas - potentially immediately.

- Also some talk that Ricciardo's position at McLaren may not be secure for the rest of the season. Personally think that's a bit stretch that they would drop him mid-season - far more plausible that they trigger an eject clause at the end of the season.

Over on the F1 Reddit, the above two then sparked off some wild speculation of a multi-seat-swap. My favourite was Schumacher out, Ricciardo to Haas, Alonso to McLaren, Piastri to Alpine. Where do they come up with this stuff? :eek:

Same place as Bissouma to Villa?
 




A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
18,574
Deepest, darkest Sussex
On the Mick Schumacher rumours, it would be interesting if he’d have had his chance if his name wasn’t Schumacher…
 




GOM

living vicariously
Aug 8, 2005
3,230
Leeds - but not the dirty bit
[/B]

If that's what you want to watch then maybe Indy car racing is for you - many people prefer it - F1 is not, never has been, just about the driver and the race on Sunday - it is just as much about innovation, car development and the fans.

But many people are only interested in the race on Sunday, you can look down on them if you wish.
I have been a F1 fan for more years than I care to remember and I have always thought and still do that Monaco should go. If all the 'races' were as flat out (pardon the pun) boring as Monaco, there would be no fans to take an interest in innovation and car development.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Monaco is seldom thrilling but it has history and class and is an interesting track even if the race isn’t

I’d bin Sochi (fortunately binned this season) Abu Dhabi, the Hungaroring , Paul Ricard and Singapore before Monaco. All shit boring tracks with no redeeming features imo
 




Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,025
Uckfield
Monaco is seldom thrilling but it has history and class and is an interesting track even if the race isn’t

I’d bin Sochi (fortunately binned this season) Abu Dhabi, the Hungaroring , Paul Ricard and Singapore before Monaco. All shit boring tracks with no redeeming features imo

Sochi already binned forever.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,025
Uckfield

I stopped reading it half way through. It's actually a very poor article with a clear anti-Ricciardo agenda. It's poorly researched, presented with a biased view on many elements, and omits anything that would undermine their narrative.

For starters: McLaren actually *did* find a problem with Ricciardo's car after the Spanish GP. Secondly, the spin they put on Ricciardo mentioning the car setup for the Monaco crash is totally wrong. Ricciardo was never trying to put the blame elsewhere, just explaining what had happened. And he's been very, very open that he's struggling and not achieving to the high levels that both he and McLaren expected.

No way known is the spin they put on things in that article accurate. It's a terrible article.

Far better to read The Race. They've done a series of articles on Ricciardo's travails at McLaren, and I've found them very balanced. This is the most recent: https://the-race.com/formula-1/option-for-ricciardo-to-leave-mclaren-is-his-not-the-teams/
 


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