the way i saw it
here's the way i saw the incident invovling the mclaren team in Q3 of formula one qualifying from the hungaroring today. it was obvious right from the start of Q3 that lewis hamilton was MUCH quicker than fernanco alonso (so much quicker, in fact, that hamilton absolutely took off while alonso actually got passed by kimi raikonnen in the ferrari -- the same ferrari that hasn't been even close to matching the speed of the mclaren all weekend long!) now, if you know anything at all about formula one that would lead you to believe that fernando was much heavier on fuel than his teammate. this was all but confirmed by the team after qualifying when they said that fernando was supposed to get the benefit of getting out of the pits first and ultimately getting an extra lap. according to the team, lewis decided to ignore team orders to let alonso by in the opening lap of Q3 thus throwing their strategy out of the window. here's where the story gets interesting to me....
to rectify the situation the team decided to bring fernando in first and hold him in the pits to put hamilton behind him.
hmmmmm........
let me write that again....to fix the fact that alonso was going to lose a lap on his teammate, the team chose to hold him in the pits while his teammate completed his lap.
i'm no engineer, but if alonso was essentially going to lose a lap of fuel because of hamilton's decision to ignore the team how is the solution to hold him in the pits while hamilton completes yet another lap? wouldn't that now lose him 2 laps of fuel to his teammate?
up to that point, what i did see in the tv coverage was...
#1 as i already mentioned, the fact that alonso was clearly heavier on fuel than his teammate
#2 alonso seemed to be unhappy with somebody on the pit wall during that first stop...definitely some finger pointing from alonso during the delayed stop
ok, moving on to the second stop...
alonso again pits before hamilton, but this time the team doesn't hold him quite as long....BUT once the lollipop was lifted, it seems that now alonso made the decision to ignore the team and he did not leave the pits for another 1o seconds, in effect leaving not enough time for hamilton to complete his stop and get a final hot lap in. alonso went on to take pole leaving hamilton with P2. what happened next is what was most interesting to me.
ron dennis, team principal (the boss), went to talk to alonso who turned a cold shoulder to him...didn't say a word...to the boss...hmmmmmm....
my take......
its no secret that lewis hamilton is ron dennis' chosen driver...its well publicised that dennis has been grooming hamilton from a young age to drive his f1 car. alonso signed to drive for mclaren before it was known that hamilton would be in the sister car. i hate to ever think that any driver gets better equipment than his teammate, especially at a first rate team like mclaren, but just looking at this weekend and only this weekend...why did hamilton's car work well with the option tire while alonso's car didn't? anyway, my point in that is to say that it seems that hamilton is being given a preferred driver role at mclaren over alonso. now, when you're talking about michael schumacher and rubens barrichello you can almost accept that. schumacher was a champion, while barrichelo was not. in the mclaren case. fernando alonso is 2 time defending f1 champ, lewis hamilton is a rookie. if i were fernando i'd be a bit annoyed if my rookie teammate was being given a preferred driver role on my team. which brings me right back to what happened today.
lewis was told by the team to let alonso by at the beginning of Q3. lewis knows he's the #1 driver and so decided he would do no such thing. i can't really explain what happened in alonso's first pit stop, except by using conspiracy theory, but what i can say with some confidence is that fernando was not happy to be sitting in the pits for so long. in the second stop, fernando decided that he's the #1 driver and he would wait in the pits long enough that hamilton would not be able to complete another flyer.
the winner in the end. NOBODY. fernando lost his pole position. mclaren loses any points which they would have secured in this race, which lets be honest, was going to be maximum points, nobody was touching mclaren this weekend. but the real question to come out of all of this for me is....where will fernando alonso be driving next year?
to rectify the situation the team decided to bring fernando in first and hold him in the pits to put hamilton behind him.
hmmmmm........
let me write that again....to fix the fact that alonso was going to lose a lap on his teammate, the team chose to hold him in the pits while his teammate completed his lap.
i'm no engineer, but if alonso was essentially going to lose a lap of fuel because of hamilton's decision to ignore the team how is the solution to hold him in the pits while hamilton completes yet another lap? wouldn't that now lose him 2 laps of fuel to his teammate?
up to that point, what i did see in the tv coverage was...
#1 as i already mentioned, the fact that alonso was clearly heavier on fuel than his teammate
#2 alonso seemed to be unhappy with somebody on the pit wall during that first stop...definitely some finger pointing from alonso during the delayed stop
ok, moving on to the second stop...
alonso again pits before hamilton, but this time the team doesn't hold him quite as long....BUT once the lollipop was lifted, it seems that now alonso made the decision to ignore the team and he did not leave the pits for another 1o seconds, in effect leaving not enough time for hamilton to complete his stop and get a final hot lap in. alonso went on to take pole leaving hamilton with P2. what happened next is what was most interesting to me.
ron dennis, team principal (the boss), went to talk to alonso who turned a cold shoulder to him...didn't say a word...to the boss...hmmmmmm....
my take......
its no secret that lewis hamilton is ron dennis' chosen driver...its well publicised that dennis has been grooming hamilton from a young age to drive his f1 car. alonso signed to drive for mclaren before it was known that hamilton would be in the sister car. i hate to ever think that any driver gets better equipment than his teammate, especially at a first rate team like mclaren, but just looking at this weekend and only this weekend...why did hamilton's car work well with the option tire while alonso's car didn't? anyway, my point in that is to say that it seems that hamilton is being given a preferred driver role at mclaren over alonso. now, when you're talking about michael schumacher and rubens barrichello you can almost accept that. schumacher was a champion, while barrichelo was not. in the mclaren case. fernando alonso is 2 time defending f1 champ, lewis hamilton is a rookie. if i were fernando i'd be a bit annoyed if my rookie teammate was being given a preferred driver role on my team. which brings me right back to what happened today.
lewis was told by the team to let alonso by at the beginning of Q3. lewis knows he's the #1 driver and so decided he would do no such thing. i can't really explain what happened in alonso's first pit stop, except by using conspiracy theory, but what i can say with some confidence is that fernando was not happy to be sitting in the pits for so long. in the second stop, fernando decided that he's the #1 driver and he would wait in the pits long enough that hamilton would not be able to complete another flyer.
the winner in the end. NOBODY. fernando lost his pole position. mclaren loses any points which they would have secured in this race, which lets be honest, was going to be maximum points, nobody was touching mclaren this weekend. but the real question to come out of all of this for me is....where will fernando alonso be driving next year?
posted by los at 9:02 PM
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