Autoblog

Someone typing in this room sounds awfully biased...

I think Alonso said these things more so to try and rally support behind the people working for him at Renault. Alonso is a tricky little so and so who loves using weird political strategies to get what he wants.

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Fernando has at best one or two more championships **IF** he joins Ferrari, mark my words.

@ Richard, not any WDC would jump to McLaren... the logical thing to do would have been to get a raise from renault. The managed to raise 50 million or so to get him to come back last year, I'm sure they could have done it then.

Secondly, Mclaren didn't screw him over. If he was not such a primadonna and whiney bitch, then maybe Mclaren might have been able to take home the WCC last year.

Thirdly, Kimi will soundly bitchslap Massa into his place this year. Watch and see.

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@hashiru,

Yes. Agreed. The logical thing to do would have been to get a raise from Renault. But you didn't read what I reported: everything was under review w/Gohsn coming on board and no commitment to F1 had been uttered. It was expected that he would cut the program - as per his history of implementing cost-cutting measures. So there was no commitment from Renault to stay in F1, let alone giving their new WDC a raise.

Plenty of reasons to dislike Alonso for the way he behaved. But he did bring McLaren somewhere between 3 and 5 tenths per lap. But he also had to share his set-up information with Hamilton for most of the year - which is not what the deal was when he signed on.

Finally, the only b-slapping Kimi will be doing is with several hundred bottles of Vodka. Personally, I expect Ferrari to be fairly far off the pace this year. McLaren will dominate, followed by Renault (closely) and BMW. Mark MY words.

I think that Ferrari are on the way down. There has been plenty of internal strife and "Stepney-Gate" is just the publicly seen tip of that iceberg - IMHO. Schumacher will be locked out next and the whole thing will go straight to the form of the Berger/ Alessi days. Watch (though I hope I am wrong).

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I find it very interesting that, the "aftertaste" of the "stepney-gate" saga is that Alonso is disloyal.

Could it be, as I have found with a previous employer that showed such low interest in doing things the right way that it was willing to bend (if not break) any rule in it's way, that Alonso finally got fed up with a conniving, double-talking, absolutely untrustworthy employer?

Could it be that, in fact, he was fed up with (as was the still-employed-by-McLaren Dela Rosa) the kind of illegalities that SHOULD HAVE cost McLaren any legitimate shot at a championship... and that his own experiences with the management and it's treatment of him (remember,... a 2-time WDC) made him realize he had no future at McLaren, anyway?

Could it be that his return to Renault was, at least partly, because of his loyalty to Briatore? I know Briatore insists that Alonso's management is by his company, not him, personally... but I still find it hard to believe that there are bad feelings between the two or that Briatore didn't rubber stamp Alonso's decision to negotiate safe haven at McLaren when the Renault program was in such flux.

Could it be that, in fact, Alonso does not want to hurt his mentor/ manager Briatore by leaving early?

Look,... I know Alonso doesn't look like the nice guy in some of these situations but I've been following F1 long enough to know the difference between Senna and Boutsen... I'd have taken Senna in a heartbeat and it had nothing to do with being a nice guy (though, away from the track, he was actually a funny guy with closely guarded personal life).

I think Alonso is, if anything, driven (as any champion should be), supremely skilled (as shown this past year) and, finally, a business man. I would also, as pointed out above, suggest that he might have a loyal bone in his body, which might happen to be why he hated it at McLaren...

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@summazooma, let's address your points one by one:

"Could it be, as I have found with a previous employer that showed such low interest in doing things the right way that it was willing to bend (if not break) any rule in it's way, that Alonso finally got fed up with a conniving, double-talking, absolutely untrustworthy employer?"

Alonso tried to blackmail Ron Dennis with an incriminating e-mail to force McLaren to make Alonso the clear #1 driver. If Dennis had given in to Alonso's demands, Alonso wouldn't give the e-mail to the FIA. Rather than be blackmailed by Alonso, Dennis went to the FIA himself. The only thing Alonso was fed up with was McLaren not favoring him over Hamilton.

"Could it be that, in fact, he was fed up with (as was the still-employed-by-McLaren Dela Rosa) the kind of illegalities that SHOULD HAVE cost McLaren any legitimate shot at a championship... and that his own experiences with the management and it's treatment of him (remember,... a 2-time WDC) made him realize he had no future at McLaren, anyway?"

The transgressions committed by McLaren were addressed by the FIA and they were left out of the constructor's championship and fined $200 million (pounds or dollars, I don't remember which). Alonso surely realized he had no future at McLaren after his blackmail ploy didn't work out.

"Could it be that his return to Renault was, at least partly, because of his loyalty to Briatore? I know Briatore insists that Alonso's management is by his company, not him, personally... but I still find it hard to believe that there are bad feelings between the two or that Briatore didn't rubber stamp Alonso's decision to negotiate safe haven at McLaren when the Renault program was in such flux."

I believe it was more a case of Briatore knowing Alonso is one of the best at communicating with team engineers what the car is doing on track and how to make it better. This is shown by Renault's improvement over the course of the season with an under performing car.

"Could it be that, in fact, Alonso does not want to hurt his mentor/ manager Briatore by leaving early?"

Possibly, but not probably. If Alonso had a solid offer from Ferrari to drive for the Scuderia in 2009, he'd be in Italy right now.

"Look,... I know Alonso doesn't look like the nice guy in some of these situations but I've been following F1 long enough to know the difference between Senna and Boutsen... I'd have taken Senna in a heartbeat and it had nothing to do with being a nice guy (though, away from the track, he was actually a funny guy with closely guarded personal life)."

As would I. Hey, business is business.

"I think Alonso is, if anything, driven (as any champion should be), supremely skilled (as shown this past year) and, finally, a business man. I would also, as pointed out above, suggest that he might have a loyal bone in his body, which might happen to be why he hated it at McLaren..."

Look, I'm not a McLaren fan or an Alonso hater. I've been a Raikonnen fan for years and this past season I also wanted Vettel and Bourdais to do well, Bourdais if only to show that a 4 time Champ car champion would do well in F1. I would never say that Alonso is anything but an incredible driver. I can even understand his feelings as a two-time world champion at not being considered his team's #1 driver. He just would have been better served, I think, if he had stuck it out at McLaren. Even with all the stuff that happened in 2007, he was still tied with Hamilton in points at the end of the season. It could be argued that Alonso, had he still been with McLaren in 2008, would have done better than Kovaleinen and might have won the championship himself by outscoring Hamilton outright, or taken points away from Hamilton and given the championship to Massa.

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