Alonso brainfade costs failing Ferrari
After a weekend that promised so much, Ferrari were left to lament another afternoon in the shade of their less illustrious rivals.
Having dominated Thursday’s practice sessions, Fernando Alonso wrecked his race with a needless crash at Massenet – with his front and rear tyres ripped from the car, his chassis was cracked by a flying wheel rim. Given the fact that only rookie Vitaly Petrov crashed in qualifying, you have to wonder just why Fernando was pushing quite so hard in a session that doesn’t even reward fast times. His broken chassis forced him to sit out qualifying, ensuring any chance of a big haul of points was lost. The last Ferrari driver to start last was the incomprehensively bad Luca Badoer; a driver you sense Alonso would like to escape any comparisons to.
Alonso’s misfortune gave Felipe Massa a chance to shine - a change which was taken solidly, if unspectacularly. Felipe never looked like blowing his opportunity, yet never looked like challenging for the Red Bulls and an increasingly quick Robert Kubica. Fourth in the qualifying was followed by a fourth in the race, where he set the fourth fastest lap. Certainly not the light at the end of the tunnel he’d been hoping for, but consistent enough that it’s hard to find fault with him.
Much like the race at China, Alonso was grateful to the safety car for helping to limit the potential damage to his chances. Nico Hulkenberg’s first lap crash played perfectly into his hands, allowing for a switch from the option (the super soft) tyres to the harder prime tyre that he would use for almost the entire race, completed behind the safety car at no cost. The Spaniard still had to make his way through the backmarkers, which included a brave pass on an oddly fiesty Lucas di Grassi, but it was this call alone that meant he managed to salvage a sixth place. From here his tyres began to grain, the punishment of spending almost 20 laps extra on his set than any of his rivals, meaning that Lewis Hamilton pulled away and Michael Schumacher threatened from behind.
And whilst it was the safety car that made Alonso’s race, it also caused him embarrassment too. With the car pulling into the pits after it’s fourth appearance of the afternoon, Alonso slid out of Rascasse and saw Michael Schumacher dart to the inside of Anthong Noghes, in what was eventually ruled as an illegal move. Article 40.13 of the Formula 1 sporting regulations states, “If the race ends while the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.” Whilst Mercedes are appealing the judgement, the fact that Alonso tried to fight the position lends itself to the idea that he had no knowledge of the rule and got lucky to keep sixth. I’d love to think it was subtle revenge for Schumacher parking his car at Rascasse to block Alonso’s qualifying run in 2006…but that just seems a little too convienient.
The result finally means that Red Bull sit atop the race to both title fights, after a season where they’ve led the fight at every single race. Given the amount of times Ferrari and Alonso have fought through the field, they’ll be very happy to be anywhere near the flying Red Bulls.
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Wow! Hickley , I’m not sure if you’re just sad or bent. You make some good points that can easily be argued. No where though did you seem to mention how Ferrari were able to put together a car that sat in a box just hours before the race and have it run flawlessly on race day under what must have been imense stress. Ferrari sit second to RedBull and Alonso sits third behind the RedBull pair who are tied, hardly “Failing”. If anything, considering their bad luck, a little good luck with reference to your safety car comments is hardly a gift. Strategy and tactics to make use of such opportunities should be considered as well. Your hatred is quite evident. I’m sure you couldn’t care less for my view point seeing that I am a Ferrari fan, but if you can take your head out of your arse long enough to actually give some credit where it is due and help promote the sport instead of slinging manure, you might gain some respect and grow your readership.
It’s amazing what people who sit on the sidelines can write about someone who actually has the job and is a two time world champ. Considering Nando had a green car, no setup and still came in 6th shows that Ferrari and Nando have it together. No other team on the grid could have done that Sunday..
“There are those who work hard, remain silent and let their results speak, whereas there are those who speak, claim to work hard, and have no results!”
“After a weekend that promised so much, Ferrari were left to lament another afternoon in the shade of their less illustrious rivals.”
On the contrary, Ferrari has much to be proud of.
Alonso took P6, despite starting last. Massa finished well. The team built a car up from scratch.A car that was reliable, finished the race and scored 8 points.
Apparently, these mean nothing.
Alonso wasn’t embarrassed at the end by the SC; the race control embarrassed itself by its ambiguity in action that allowed the situation to arise.
Blogging is good; objectivity even better.Try it next time.
I’m not sure how a website that has ‘Real fans, Real opinions’ in their title can publish such garbage.
Check the driver standings Hickley a.k.a ‘Real Fan’.
And then to quote some stupid stat that
would compare Alonso to Badoer is simply idiotic.
I don’t get how anyone can fault a guy from going from last to 6th at Monaco.
IMO it was one of Alonso’s greatest drives in a car that didn’t even see a single lap before he had to race it.
How often do you think he crashes, he was two time champion…now this year despite few
mistakes he is third in the leader board with 3 points a drift.
needless ? please next time do logged a needed crash!…to you crash that cant happened to
the (bests) ?….and even after that how ferrari and he has minimized the damage completely
excaped from your faded mind, i can completely understand.
I think you watched quali only not the race…Did you had a brain bleach….i can smell
it from your faded log ,i may be wrong..its just your silly contradictory log giving me a
feeling. As far as alonso’s brain concerns according to FIA and his team, raceday
constitutes he put up a brilliant performance …and ferrari shows they know how to damage
control.And damages do happen in races. how often do you get that….?
At one breath you are talking about his faded tyres and another breath complaining he is
not catching up others. Dude this was a damage control for ferrari and him. No other team
had gone through situation like that in that race day….and offcourse you were sneezing
deep so i am not complaining.
Ferrari engineer did a great job of a needless(you said) crashed machine.
wishing you best and luck on next raceday you dont fallen asleep.
964213
my brain just faded reading this one sided resume
“you have to wonder just why Fernando was pushing quite so hard in a session that doesn’t even reward fast times”
easy..most probably it wasnt his fault
there is an ongoing feeling that the crash was due a transmision failure of the car,and alonso took the blame to protect Domenicalli, in any case was a weird uncommon crash,and i must remember
the ferrari is the third pacesetter car on the grid behind RB and Macca..to put a car in a place that doesnt belong means taking risks
another more balanced view :
The Monaco round spring the surprise of alonso making an uncommon mistake on free practice third.
Crashing his car against the fences,apparently he took the Massenet too fast blocking the brakes of his ferrari and collided againts the fences.
What normally would have been just a simple repair of one hour unluckyly turned out on a broken chasee and transmision damages impossible to repair in the 2 hours available until qualyfication round, leaving alonso with the new fia regulations out of the qualy for the prohibition to use the spare car.
As a drivers hands track Monaco is one of Alonso favourites
and he has this season the task to try to win it for the third time,with the potential award of beign the only driver to win in monaco for three different F1 teams,ironically instread the history repeats itself, as alonso had to watch the qualy from the wall,like Airton senna, and Alain prost in the late eighties.
Fernando alonso quicky regret the fail as his in free practice recognizing a driver error, but unofficcialy a further roumor from insider Josep Lluis Merlos from tv3 points out of a transmission failure of the ferrari car as the real reason of the incident.
with all the chances for a win lost, massa did a discrete qualifing session, showing once again the redbulls are the team to beat with 6 poles from 6 possible attemps.
On the race day Alonso had to start from the pits, and the task now was to minimize the damage as much as possible triying to emulate what Michael schumaker did in 2006 when he finished 5th after been deployed to the back of the grid for his ignominious parking at la rascasse.
the two possible strateglies were obvious pitting early on the first lap for a new set of tires waiting for a potential
safety car,or resisting the full race on hards and pit for the softs as much late as the circumstances allow
Finally agreed to pit early as the most safer choice and with a car built from scratch the Race Started without incidents with webber keeping the lead,but this is monaco, and the safety was about to come,as expected.
By the time hulkemberg crashed his williams on the exit of the tunnel, alonso had already pitted whilst for the rest was way too early,an alonso on fire started to overtake all backmakers,with the added difficulty of overtaking spaces at monaco.
Only a few laps lost behind virgins Di grassi, privated alonso to emerge 5th over hamilton, as the rest of the grid pitted
Jean Alesi on Rai1 immediately after the race,word by word:
“Once upon a time drivers had a minimum of class. I’ve raced Monaco in F1 for 13 times and never seen somebody that stupid. Now you have idiots 5 seconds slower trying to retain a driver fighting for the WDC!. They are jokes, circus drivers, imbeciles and dangerous, they are real cafoni(*) that don’t understand a damn about racing…”
(*) uncouth/redneck
Instread alonso emerged 6th,right behind hamilton setting a record of gained positions in a monaco race in 18,previously set by Michael in 17,as in 2006 there were only 22 cars
whith the hardest part of the job done,and the same set of tires nearly exhausted for the full race,was time to settle down safely but with the fishing rod on, for potential mistakes.
An incident between Truly and chandok´s Hrt bringed on a safety on the last tree laps of the race,and on the last lap whilst alonso asked on the radio for permision on a potential move on hamilton that was denied, Michael schumacher was told the opposite,overtaking alonso on a maneoubre that was deemed illegal by the stewards after the race leaving schumacher out of the points.
At the end the damage neutralized,With the same 3 point disadvantage at the start, now to the redbull couple, but a good oportunity for a win lost
Meanwhile Massa had a consistent race, that being lacklustre
and less brilliant in comparison, handed him a 4th position and handfull of points to keep up.
With Alonso the as Star of the race once again, Mark got the upper hand over unexperienced vettel again twice, whilst Button unlucky Dnf, make him lost the championship lead.
Btw mercedes has withdrawn their appeal
Wow! Lots of hatred. I’d like to point out that I’m an objective F1 fan, definitely with nothing against Fernando Alonso.
Goggs – failing Ferrari refers to the fact that Ferrari have taken just one race win this season. I’ve grown up seeing Ferrari dominating F1 year after year, and this year it just seems they’re underperforming. In the same way that they can be complimented for currently being second in the championship you can compliment Liverpool for finishing 7th in the football this year – but given the history and the budgets you’d expect
more.
Mark – Obviously there’s some plusses for Ferrari after the weekend, I don’t deny that. But going into the weekend, the team had to be aiming for the podium.
Tifosa – Without the safety car on the first lap, Alonso wouldn’t have managed to finish as high as sixth. Yes he drove very well, but his entire strategy centered around that safety car.
Cacarella – the only comparison I made between Badoer and Alonso was simply that they started in last place! I’ve complimented Alonso’s ability to grind out points in the last line of the piece.
Astro1 – yup he definitely had a good race. But the fact he was even in that situation surely deserves a little criticism? Given by how there are six rookies who didn’t make these mistakes, I’m suprised my criticism has come back to haunt me!
Alphamax – OK there is no such thing as a needed crash, but whereas pushing too hard in qualifying or trying a brave overtaking move in the race can be just about justified, pushing too hard at the start of the final practice session seems, to me, very peculiar. I think you’ve taken my comment about tyres the wrong way; I wrote that BECAUSE of his tyres having lasted around 20 laps more, he was suffering. Not down to himself, it was only logical.
Ga – Unless you’re communicating in some sort of 21st century morse code, I’m not quite sure I get you!
Koji – I’m sorry, but even Fernando himself put the mistake down to driver error. For instance: http://bit.ly/dfp7QE and http://bit.ly/92FnTr
Yes, it was very uncommon to see him crash but it single handedly ruined his chances of taking a win – which looked a lot more likely at Monaco than anywhere else. I’m not denying he had a good race, but he only had to realistically overtake one car as the other backmarkers (quite rightly) got out of his way. But the free pitstop afforded by the safety car allowed for a totally different strategy that did help him along the way.
Keep ‘em coming!
Right, I can see both points of view. Koji, Alonso is one of the greatest drivers of the modern era, no question. But he made a mistake in practice. This is Monaco remember and even the best make mistakes (Hate to keep mentioning it but Senna in 1988 and Schumacher in the 90s) He lost concentration for that split second and ended up in the barriers. It happens.
Alonso is the type of driver who puts 110% in on every lap of every session and this time it didn’t pay off, he had to accept that. Circumstances in the race certainly helped Alonso, the safety car came to his rescue, you cannot dispute that. I doubt he would have got points if it wasn’t for that. It was brilliant strategy from Ferrari and great driving from Alonso to make those tyres last that long, but without the safety car, it wouldn’t have happened.
He couldn’t lose because he was last, so pitting was the best option. His rivals at the top of the field had to stay out because they had done the job in Quali, the job Fernando couldn’t because he made a mistake in practice. Circumstances allowed him to overtake everyone because they had to take their scheduled stops.
Not taking anything away from the guy, did a great job, but the fact of the matter is, he made a mistake and got lucky in the race.
yes he made a mistake and most probably it was just simply that,
like happenend to senna in 1988 or prost a year later.
just putting a question mark, because some ongoing roumor lately in the paddock of the car having a transmission failure and alonso to take the blame of the crash in order to protect domenicalli and the team
i cannot put it here but theres
also some fan fottage that shows alonso counter steering whilst the
front weels went straight, some sparks
on the front left wheel and a loose rear transmission.
in any case was very weird and uncommon
we wont know the truth now
but most probably later on
I guess I won’t be visiting this website…..
No hatred Hickley, just disappointment at the negative undertones and overtones.
I think there is a fine line to balance upon when being objective and it was crossed. Clearly, I’m always going to be a little biased, but I can call a spade a spade as well.
You see, I grew up not watching Ferrari Dominate. I was young in the 70s when they did win and for two decades when I was old enough to appreciate and understand the sport I love so much, Ferrari were not winners. That being said, I enjoyed the few years of dominationa and the build up to it. Those years for the Tifosi were glorious, yes, and perhaps not so for others. After what have been a couple of disappointing if not embarassing seasons (I point your attention to 2009 specifically) I cannot believe you would consider Ferrari to be failing. IF anything, Mercedes (Ex-Brawn) is failing. They were the class of the field last season and are struggling to keep up with the top three at this point.
As far as Alonso goes, I have never been a big fan of his personally, but I have never disputed his skills. His “brainfade” as you put it, was a result of pushing the limits a little too far. Stupid move? Arguably, but when up against RedBull, how else can one try to break the stranglehold, other than pushing? I agree, it was not his brightest moment, but to call it a brainfade seems less than objective.
I think differing opinions are good, they make for good arguements and discussion and they’re entertaining to to those of us who love this sport.
Here here Goggs.
Goggs – I love differing opinions; discussions in the pub would be a lot more boring if everyone thought the same!
With regards to Ferrari ‘failing,’ clearly the team is doing better than last season, but there are more reasons for last season’s disappointment. With the team focusing development on Felipe Massa’s 2008 championship challenge and the battle to win the Constructors crown, the team were in a poor position to negiotiate the huge change of aerodynamic regulations. With the team also putting a larger majority of their design force on the failed KERS concept, it’s no suprise that they ended up well down the field – the teams that managed to leapfrog them, specifically Red Bull and Brawn, had spent significantly more time developing their 2009 challengers – I’ve heard that Honda were specifically designing their 2009 car at the start of the 2008 season, meaning they’d be the class of the field once the cars changed.
With last years car having no championship to contend for, Ferrari began early work on this season’s car, allowing for the swap with Brawn/Mercedes, who were developing right up to the wire. However, despite this headstart Ferrari have still not taken a pole since 2008 and have just one win from six races, even though there’s been a few more opportunities due to Red Bull unreliability. It’s odd to see Ferrari throwing away these kind of opportunities – it certainly didn’t happen much during Jean Todt’s time in charge.
With regards to Alonso, perhaps ‘brainfade’ is a little harsh. I’ve been complimentary of Alonso in almost all my articles this year, it’s clear he’s a world-class driver, but it was odd to see him ending up in the wall instead of a less experienced driver. I guess just one moment of lapsed concentration can nail anyone around the Principality, whereas the newer circuits allow for similar mistakes to go completely unpunished. Such is the beauty of the Monaco race
Hickley
Hickley, no problems
yes, it was an odd accident..so odd for alonso that many people are asking themselves if it was really a mistake
Dont worry, if i have a solid proof it wasnt an accident i will post it here.
You remember Ferrari wining everything
5 years in a row,SIMPLY because ferrari didnt have any Competence, as soon as alonso got his act together at renault that changed
Remember Ferrari isnt any more the leader on the pack,discard for obvious reasons kimi´s title in 2007 and ferrari hasnt win any WDC with clear superiority
since 2004
if you ask me if i expected more from alonso?,
i would say maybe for the rest
…to me everithing is going as expected.
Many forget very quicky he is just 6 races in a new team with a totally different philosophy at was he is used to, and with a competent teammate wich is a man of the house, and despite his accident is doing some solid job..massa its no piquet and most of the good venues for him arrive now.
But Alonso is still outshining him and
keeping the arguably third car in the grid in the second place just 3 points
to the cars that have done 6 from 6 poles!!..if that isnt awesome let me know what is
Alonso is making mistakes because he is taking all the risks to make himself his room at the team and to try to put the car in a place that it does not belong yet..the top.
if you ask me is alonso underperforming
i would say..no way
maybe that a question for schumacher, and if you ask me about underperforming drivers at ferrari then a certain kimi, badoer and fisichella comes to my mind
alonso nope at least not yet
yes i am an alonso supporter so
alonso is a god to me, but even god had
to work a full week to create the universe.
Time puts everybody in the right places,and if this is not our year
next will be.
At least nobody can say anymore the team have not tried harder enough like last season.
Overpaid FIArrari driver with Santander paying his bills. He is carBreaker that only knows how to win by cheating.(Flav and co.) I bet they can buy Massa to drive to wall with Santander money. Im sure his luck will run out eventually and then its bye bye cheater!!! The guy is total cheat, enough said.
Maybe Jean Todt gives him more favours than opening the freeze and giving his place back after overtaking, while taking a nap. Quess Santander still has JT on pay roll.
Hickley, it’s Monaco. Basing a strategy around the SC is a given
My point is, he recovered well enough from his error on Saturday and salvaged points.
Which is sorta like something you replied, so I guess we’re in some agreement there.
donkeyboy, your nick says it all.