Alonso. Moaning...

[Bearface]

My fellow F1 armchair pundits here at DPNow are aware of my views on Fernando Alonso, so I won't go into another in-depth rant. However I came across this article today, and I quickly realised that it served to confirm much of what I'd said in the past about the dour, diminutive Spaniard...

His petulant display is nothing new; he's thrown his toys out of the pram many times in the past and then made silly mistakes on the track. What galls me is that he appears to be confusing Hamilton's vastly superior talent and maturity with a fictional situation in which McLaren are giving the bulk of their support and resources to Lewis, while he has to get by on his ability and luck.

If I was Ron today, I'd be calling the spoilt little git into my office for a few words and possibly even a slap - I mean, Alonso is being paid millions for his decent-but-nevertheless-hardly-class-leading services, while Lewis is just enormously grateful to be racing for a top team and a relatively modest fee. And unlike Alonso, he performs consistently and at the highest levels, while his more experienced team-mate does not. Most odd...

It's funny that Schuey attracted so much aggro from the media for his alleged poor sportsmanship and intolerance of a strong team-mate, when in fact it's always been obvious to me that it's Alonso who's a miserable, unsporting and arrogant individual. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what transpires...

[Ian]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

My fellow F1 armchair pundits here at DPNow are aware of my views on Fernando Alonso, so I won't go into another in-depth rant. However I came across this article today, and I quickly realised that it served to confirm much of what I'd said in the past about the dour, diminutive Spaniard...

His petulant display is nothing new; he's thrown his toys out of the pram many times in the past and then made silly mistakes on the track. What galls me is that he appears to be confusing Hamilton's vastly superior talent and maturity with a fictional situation in which McLaren are giving the bulk of their support and resources to Lewis, while he has to get by on his ability and luck.

If I was Ron today, I'd be calling the spoilt little git into my office for a few words and possibly even a slap - I mean, Alonso is being paid millions for his decent-but-nevertheless-hardly-class-leading services, while Lewis is just enormously grateful to be racing for a top team and a relatively modest fee. And unlike Alonso, he performs consistently and at the highest levels, while his more experienced team-mate does not. Most odd...

It's funny that Schuey attracted so much aggro from the media for his alleged poor sportsmanship and intolerance of a strong team-mate, when in fact it's always been obvious to me that it's Alonso who's a miserable, unsporting and arrogant individual. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what transpires...

He's not moaning - except perhaps about the British press (nothing new there!).

He says his team mate is doing (and I use his words) "a brilliant job". Later on he says he's relaxed and happy that he has a clear chance to win the title, which is what he wants.

Can you really imagine the dark clouds that would have formed at Ferrari if Schumacher found himself in a situation like this?! *eek

Alonso has never had a team mate as good as Hamilton - naturally it's tough for him, but I think he's taking it far better than Schumacher would have done.

And where has Alonso been unsporting? Certainly not on the track, where Schumacher certainly has on several occasions!

And you can't have it two ways, Tim - either McLaren is holding Hamilton back in favour of Alonso or you believe Alonso himself and acknowledge that Hamilton is getting the lion's share of the support.

I liked Eddie Jordan's comment on Hamilton - you need to be an arrogant ******* behind the wheel to be a champion, but Hamilton has the ability to switch that off out of the car. Most of the recent champions, with a couple of exceptions, are basically not nice people, but that's part of their character that helps them achieve, ruthlessly, their success. Alonso is no differet, Schumacher is no different, but I think Hamilton is.

Ian

[peter]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

I liked Eddie Jordan's comment on Hamilton - you need to be an arrogant ******* behind the wheel to be a champion, but Hamilton has the ability to switch that off out of the car. Most of the recent champions, with a couple of exceptions, are basically not nice people, but that's part of their character that helps them achieve, ruthlessly, their success. Alonso is no differet, Schumacher is no different, but I think Hamilton is.

Ian

I also saw that today but did not want to be the first to post about it. Now Now Ian I think you need to do some reading up on Schumacher. The man is one hell off a family man that is why he has kept his wife and kids out of the spot light. When he goes home its to be a husband and a father not the man you see on track. Also look into the work he does for Charity. That to me does not sound like someone who is not a nice person and if it is well I guess the world needs a few more like him.

Oh and on a lighter note I have seen todays potd. I did not know you are a leaf man. The reason I say that is I also had potd a while back and it was also a leaf. Oh well each to their own I guess .

[Ian]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

I also saw that today but did not want to be the first to post about it. Now Now Ian I think you need to do some reading up on Schumacher. The man is one hell off a family man that is why he has kept his wife and kids out of the spot light. When he goes home its to be a husband and a father not the man you see on track. Also look into the work he does for Charity. That to me does not sound like someone who is not a nice person and if it is well I guess the world needs a few more like him.

Oh and on a lighter note I have seen todays potd. I did not know you are a leaf man. The reason I say that is I also had potd a while back and it was also a leaf. Oh well each to their own I guess .

I'd expect most, indeed ALL, of the top drivers to do charity work.

I'm not saying anyone is a bad family person, I'm talking mainly about characters when in and out of the car at the track or talking about racing.

You have to admit that Schumacher is all sweetness and light when things are going his way, but really sour-faced when things are not and it's always someone else's fault. In many ways, Alonso is like that too - and other top drivers. Hamilton, though, doesn't show that kind of manner, although to be fair, we haven't seen him on the back foot yet. Though I don't recall any different behaviour in his lower formula days.

And most of all, how do you think Schumacher would be handling the situation Alonso finds himself in, with a genius of young rookie team mate, regularly beating him fair and square in the same car. Oh! Silly me, that situation would never be allowed to happen in the first place...

POTD - I thought Scott did a really nice job considering he doesn't have cutting edge kit and he confesses to be a novice. Isn't he your nephew?

Ian

[peter]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

You have to admit that Schumacher is all sweetness and light when things are going his way, but really sour-faced when things are not and it's always someone else's fault. In many ways, Alonso is like that too - and other top drivers. Hamilton, though, doesn't show that kind of manner, although to be fair, we haven't seen him on the back foot yet. Though I don't recall any different behaviour in his lower formula days.

And most of all, how do you think Schumacher would be handling the situation Alonso finds himself in, with a genius of young rookie team mate, regularly beating him fair and square in the same car. Oh! Silly me, that situation would never be allowed to happen in the first place...
Ian

Do we not all throw things out of our prams when things are not going our way. I read the other day that Hamilton was going to leave the team if he was not given the same chance to win as Alonso. Not bad for a rookie with only a few races under his belt.

Ok So Schumacher may not have been happy but this is now History. Also It worked not only for him but also for Ferrari who at the end of the day were paying the bills and must have been more then happy with that money well spent.

POTD - I thought Scott did a really nice job considering he doesn't have cutting edge kit and he confesses to be a novice. Isn't he your nephew?

Yes he is. so you have now meet the family. Oh and he and his dad are also not Schumacher fans. We have had the odd talk about him and Ferrari over the years

[jds9000]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

Takuma gets my vote ...... along with quite a few other peoples .....
... according to the ITV-F1 site ......

[Bearface]

Re: Alonso. Moaning...

He's not moaning - except perhaps about the British press (nothing new there!).

“From the first moment, I wasn’t comfortable with everything,”

"We knew that all the support and help would be going to him"

Of course he's moaning! His rookie team-mate is showing him the way home and he's struggling with the dawning realisation that he isn't one of the great F1 drivers of our time.

He says his team mate is doing (and I use his words) "a brilliant job". Later on he says he's relaxed and happy that he has a clear chance to win the title, which is what he wants.

How could he say anything else? His team mate is doing a better job than he is for a fraction of the price

Can you really imagine the dark clouds that would have formed at Ferrari if Schumacher found himself in a situation like this?! *eek

No, because Schuey wasn't an independent driver like anyone else - he was Ferrari's main driver and their formula for success.....no, dominance.......was to get behind Schuey and employ second drivers in a supporting role. Because of that, there would've been no question of bringing in another driver with similar talent, because the system would've failed, compromised by the inter-team competition which would've been less fruitful.

It had nothing to do with Schuey being "afraid" of good drivers (a notion which itself is only perpetrated by (a) those who have an irrational hatred of the hugely successful racing driver and (b) the media who really need a bad guy to make things more interesting...) beating him in the same car - he regularly and consistently beat great drivers when his car was less competitive than theirs for Pete's sake - it was simply down to a different way of running a team and well..........the results spoke volumes, did they not..?

Schuey was good enough to win seven world championships with a team that only had a dominant package for maybe three of those seasons. Both he and Ferrari knew that a team built around him would enjoy unparallelled success and so they all pulled together and achieved precisely that. By creating a team which supported it's most talented driver, Ferrari admittedly took a different approach to other teams, but the formula worked and in any case the number two drivers enjoyed far more success than they would've done with any other team.

Oh, and Schuey put far, far, far more time and effort into his work than any of his rivals, which is why his team were able to hone cars which precisely suited his style and why his team and associates admired him greatly. He was approachable, considerate and selfless with his colleagues, which is why they went the extra mile for him. Can you think of anyone (including Alonso) in today's F1 who does as much? Hamilton, probably...........and he's going to be the next mega-champion in F1...

Alonso has never had a team mate as good as Hamilton - naturally it's tough for him, but I think he's taking it far better than Schumacher would have done.

That's a hypothesis based entirely on your clouded view of Schumacher. In fact, Schuey (apart from being the greatest driver in F1) was also very shrewd and would never have allowed himself to be in a situtation which compromised him or his team. Alonso on the other hand is openly admitting that he knew how things would be at McLaren..............and yet here he is having a little whinge to his home audience. Pathetic...

And where has Alonso been unsporting? Certainly not on the track, where Schumacher certainly has on several occasions!

Are you quite sure, Ian..? The one that sticks in my mind is Monza, when he blocked Massa and then dangerously swerved several times during a subsequent temper-tantrum. Of course, because it wasn't Schumacher doing the dirty, the media played it all down and even implied that the 10-place penalty was too harsh, but if you were watching it all live..........well you'd have to have been looking away to miss the blatancy of it all.

Aside from that, he's done very little of note which one might call unsporting on the track (but then you can only count on the fingers of one hand what Schuey did wrong on-track in his entire 14-year career...) but off-track he's said and done plenty to indicate that he struggles hugely to keep his head when a little pressure is applied. Sure, Schuey could pull the odd face when he'd been down on his luck, but he was always quick to compliment rivals and acknowledge defeat.

And you can't have it two ways, Tim - either McLaren is holding Hamilton back in favour of Alonso or you believe Alonso himself and acknowledge that Hamilton is getting the lion's share of the support.

Ooh, some journalistic spin

I stated quite clearly on Sunday that I fully expected McLaren to help Alonso to the win, were that possible. However I also said that I'd love to be proved wrong and it came to pass. Given that I think the team needs to financially justify Alonso and his massive fee, I'm still of the opinion that getting Alonso to the championship is their preferred route, so far from wanting this two ways, I'm simply highlighting that Alonso - despite the resources available to him and the fact that he's the current world champion - is actually a silly, petulant little man. And he's not so great behind the wheel either, but that's for another day...

I liked Eddie Jordan's comment on Hamilton - you need to be an arrogant ******* behind the wheel to be a champion, but Hamilton has the ability to switch that off out of the car. Most of the recent champions, with a couple of exceptions, are basically not nice people, but that's part of their character that helps them achieve, ruthlessly, their success. Alonso is no differet, Schumacher is no different, but I think Hamilton is.

Ian

Do you have any recollections of Schuey being either arrogant or unsporting when off-track? Thing is, I can't remember a time when he wasn't polite, fair and reasonable when addressing the media or being interviewed privately, so if you have any supporting info, I'd be genuinely interested to see / hear it. I can remember him occasionally getting impatient with the press when they asked pretty lame or predictable questions (which is something most drivers do), but I have no memory of him being arrogant.........sorry.

I agree that many highly successful, focused people - F1 drivers, sportspeople or even people in business - are often quite curt or aloof when dealing with the media or members of the public, and I actually think Hamilton might be an exception, although he did refer to drivers in lesser teams (when discussing the issue of back-markers with ITV prior to a recent race) as "the monkeys at the back...", which I thought was highly disresectful for someone who in F1 terms, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But here's hoping he'll stay grounded