Comments on: Alonso and the Piquet-Renault fall-out

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:56:02 +0000

Okay, this is embarrassing, but my first reply made no sense. I meant to say that Massa and Alonso were yelling at one another in *Italian*, not Spanish. Sorry for the confusion. My reply should have read as follows:

Actually, both Massa and Alonso were yelling at one another in Italian that day after the race in the Nurburgring in 2007. It was quite fun to watch (actually, to listen). For the record, I speak both Spanish and Italian. It would not be hard to confuse the two if you’re not familiar with them.

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:53:52 +0000

Actually, both Massa and Alonso were yelling at one another in Spanish that day after the race in the Nurburgring in 2007. It was quite fun to watch (actually, to listen). For the record, I speak both Spanish and Italian. It would not be hard to confuse the two if you’re not familiar with them.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:39:07 +0000

Patrickl,
I know very well what telemetry means, I’m responding to what Bartholomew said. The telemetry belongs to the team not the driver. Car setup up however can be driver specific.
So a driver can’t hide the telemetry. If 2 cars have different brake bias setup, a telemetry on braking point will be incompatible with either drivers setup. But still useful as a reference point when the team comes back to that track.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:01:53 +0000

I would find nothing better than Massa outperforming Alonso if they are the pair next yr.
I would rather Ferrari not bring Alonso in and leave him and his arrogence with Renault.
I would love to see him back at McLaren with Hamilton spanking him on a regular basis.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:54:20 +0000

too funny

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:53:33 +0000

It was never a problem during other years of racing. You never heard other drivers complaining of this before the Alonso yrs at McLaren and since then it is now becoming the way you keep your no.2 there and your no,1 happy. it would be different if they were develpoing the cars in two different packages to see which one was best, but to give 1 driver the new pieces and let the other faulter is just wrong and breeds contempt.
This seem to now be what some of the F1 teams are about.

By: Paige Michael-Shetley

Paige Michael-Shetley — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:47:53 +0000

I hate to be on Flav’s side, as I despise him as much as any personality in F1, but the fact is that Piquet did nothing to impress. You cannot tell me that Renault purposefully gave him a much weaker car than Alonso. It makes absolutely no sense for them not to give both drivers the best car they can, as they sacrifice constructors points by doing so.

Sure, between races there may have been differences because Renault couldn’t get enough parts out to the track in time for both cars, but they always ended up giving Piquet the same parts Alonso had on his car.

The fact is that Piquet was simply rubbish in the car. The Renault isn’t brilliant this season (nor was it brilliant last sesaon), but it’s a car that should always make it out of Q1 and should at least always challenge for Q3. Alonso is an elite driver and has driven the car impeccably in getting the mid-packer into Q3 on a consistent basis (in addition to helping the team develop a car he could win in), he’s a tough standard by which to judge any driver. But he’s not so great that he takes a car that should struggle to get out of Q1 and always put it in Q3; no driver is that good. The car should make Q2 consistently and challenge for Q3.

Piquet always struggled to get out of Q1, which is the territory of cars clearly inferior than the Renault such as the Force Indias and STRs. (And last year, the Honda) Let us not forget the numerous spins in a display of simply weak car control. He’s had the benefit of advancing through the ranks due to having a famous last name and a lot of money backing him. But F1 eventually weeds these people out and keeps the talents who really belong, and Piquet was weeded out.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:11:02 +0000

The hope is he can replace with a new Flavio-the-driver-manager-client, as has happened several times in the past. Fisi refused Flavio’s management and got tossed to the back of the grid like lightening.

By: roser

roser — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:28:48 +0000

In one interview, Piquet said that Alonso was a good teamate and that he considers him a great driver… He complained about Flavio, but never about Fernando (as far as I know, maybe I’m missing something).

By: danielle

danielle — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:31:47 +0000

I am australian

I am not saying he is or isnt difficult, like everyone else here I would have no idea, he is spanish and on the whole they are quite emotive people, fiery or passionate does not mean difficult to get along with, something I feel the British media have trouble understanding and have therefore tarnished him with the wrong brush. I have seen interviews with alonso and then seen the follow up written in the British media and it is twisted to suit their own interpretation of the story.

My problem lies with the implied statement that he is a difficult team mate, which has nothing to do with what Flavio said and what both you and Becken have quoted.