F1 2007

[Cort Haus]

If Fernandinho did stay, and Lewis won the title, where would this leave the eyebrowed-one's belief that the current WDC should have No 1 spot within the team?

[Zoid]

If Hamilton wins the title, Alonso will have a very hard time convincing McLaren that he deserves special treatment...

[Cort Haus]

Nigel Stepney's POV

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19721.html

[Zoid]

Stupid McLaren They wouldn't have lost much by pitting Hamilton a few laps earlier. He had a good lead and there's no reason not to play it safe in this situation. Even a fourth place would've been acceptable...

[Thorgal]

Well, i would not blame McLaren I would say that Hamilton, maybe too used to having everything working in his favour, risked too much fighting with Kimi and Trulli in a less than idoneal situtation and was not able to maintain his tyres cool and his car on track, as everyone else was.

[Zoid]

Possibly, but still. It's the teams responsibility to pit a driver when they see somethings wrong. Hamiltons tyres were visibly very worn 10 laps before his little mishap. OTOH Hamilton should've insisted on a pit stop when he noticed the car was becoming difficult to handle...

[Thorgal]

As de la Rosa said in Spanish TV, Hamilton started the race very light. If they had pitted him 10 laps before, he had been forced to do a stop more than the others before the race end.

[Thorgal]

From autosport:

"The problem was rain and his (Hamilton's) tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren't at all fazed about Kimi. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando."
Ron Dennis.

Amazing... Too much for that equal treatment myth i would say. I would say too than Alonso is amazingly near to Hamilton in the championship considering the ridiculous situation in that team...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Thorgal
As de la Rosa said in Spanish TV, Hamilton started the race very light. If they had pitted him 10 laps before, he had been forced to do a stop more than the others before the race end.

True, but he still could've beaten Vettel in 4th and gotten 5 points instead of 0. I don't know why they risked it when he was in full control of both race and championship...

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Thorgal
From autosport:

"The problem was rain and his (Hamilton's) tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren't at all fazed about Kimi. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando."
Ron Dennis.

Amazing... Too much for that equal treatment myth i would say. I would say too than Alonso is amazingly near to Hamilton in the championship considering the ridiculous situation in that team...

Alonso is lucky to still have a car after the things he's being saying about his boss and team.

[Zoid]

Indeed.

[Thorgal]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Alonso is lucky to still have a car after the things he's being saying about his boss and team.

Alonso has the car not becuase he is lucky but becuase according to the contract McLaren is obliged to give him a capable car at every race, period. In any case Ron has confirmed Alonso´s critics towards the team...

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Thorgal
In any case Ron has confirmed Alonso´s critics towards the team...

And you don't think that Ron's alleged comments today have anything to do with the way Alonso blackmailed the team to try and force them to give him preferential treatment? Or the public attacks he has made against Dennis and the team? Or his claim to have engineered six tenths of the car's good pace this season? Alonso complained bitterly that Renault failed to give him enough support when he was there too. Could there be a pattern developing here?

I can't imagine what Alonso's reaction would have been if it had been his pitstop that the team screwed up, rather than Hamilton's.

Another interesting detail is the way Hamilton's reaction was to appologise for his mistake in the pitlane, even though Witmarsh and the team admitted that it was their fault for keeping him out till his tyres broke while waiting to see what the weather was doing (nothing to do with lack of fuel). Not many drivers would do that.

There's a difference between equal equipment and equal opportunity on one hand, and perhaps a historical bond between a driver and team that has grown over the years. For all the accusations that the bond between Hamilton and the team is based on national lines, this ignores the bond between Ron and Mikka back when the British David Coulthard was Mikka's team-mate. Mikka and Ron had a personal bond, and the same may be true with Lewis, which would hardly be surprising seeing as the lad has grown up in the McLaren team.

At the end of the day friendship is one thing, professional equality is something else. There is no evidence that Dennis has denied Alonso equal opportunity, but there is evidence that Alonso demanded special treatment.

[Thorgal]

At the end of the day friendship is one thing, professional equality is something else. There is no evidence that Dennis has denied Alonso equal opportunity, but there is evidence that Alonso demanded special treatment.

AFAIK the only evidence about Alonso demanding such thing is the word of Ron Dennis. Weak evidence if i have seen any.

[Cort Haus]

Well, I didn't remember reading anything from Alonso that contradicted that claim. However, even if one disbelieve Ron Dennis on that item, the other points made above still stand.