I think this favoratism is way overblown. With Schumacher at Benneton indeed there were rumours that his cars was always more advanced from the one that his team mates drove. These days the drivers do get equal equipment as much as possible.

Getting an update a race later once in a while is not that big a deal really and if the no2 driver would show that he’s faster, then why would the team keep him as no2 still? Indeed like with Hamilton and Alonso.

They simply will switched that little bit of extra focus to the driver who was fastest. Regardless who that is.

First of all, sorry for my short knowledge of English. I’m afraid there is something I’m not explaining well, when I read your answers,

I will try againg despite is going to be a long way for me…

How do I make fuel corrected timing?

According to 2007 regulations, all cars where refueled after qualifying session with the fuel burned during Q3. For this reason, if you want to make any fuel correction you need to take in consideration how many laps driver did during Q3.

For that case, both drivers made 10 laps each, so, there was not any difference.

So I take the number of laps each driver made before their first pit stop, just to know how many fuel (in term of number of laps) each driver had when they were making Q3.

It’s not important to know how many fuel each driver had, it’s important to know the difference between both drivers.

So, for this case, L Hamilton was carrying fuel for 1 Lap more than F Alonso.

So my point was during Q3, F Alonso’s time was made with fuel for 1 Lap less than L Hamilton.

And this calculations are based on the available facts given the statistics reported by FIA.

I have not added any other kind of considerations. Maybe you think the team asked L Hamilton to pit earlier during his first pit stop, so my calculations should be wrong.

But, with all my respect, that should be surmises, as well as your comment about the second pit stop, in wich the team put more fuel in L Hamilton car and called him earlier than needed.

You cannot make that assumptions with available data.

In any case, I’m sure I’m not explaining myself very well, because I cannot understand how can you infer any fuel strategy for the second pit stop taking my figures!!!

I hope I’ve been clear enough to explain what I’m trying to say…

McLaren are totally favouring Hamilton this year and so they should. Kovalinen has been pathetic this year. There’s no way he’s going to remain at McLaren next year.

Renault are totally favouring Alonso; as they should, as Piquet was next to useless. So useless that they let him go – not sure why they took so long as it was clear from last year already that he was not up to it. They have replaced him now with Grosjean.

I go back to my initial comment – all F1 drivers no matter how bad they are; expect and receive equal equipment. It’s only in the rare case; (exaggerated this year due to the limited to no testing allowed) that at some races (perhaps one or two) cars from same team are not of equal specification specification.

It’s only when a specific driver continually gets allocated the optimum race strategy AND (this is important) the management of the team also focus their full attention on that driver; that the “unloved” other driver starts to complain.

Unfortunatley the above situation is a very natural human tendancy; and will continue to happen forever. As humans we all love a winner, and teams are no different.

Take a look at the reaction and support of the British public this year towards Jensen Button and away from Lewis Hamilton as an illustration of this point.

Bottom line – F1 teams are a business, not a sport. Their income and future is based primarliy on how many points they get during a season. As a result they will always focus on maximising the potential points haul. If like Red Bull – they have two fairly equal drivers they will provide equal strategy and support to both drivers until one does not have a mathematical chnace to attain the title.
If on the other hand you have a team like McLaren or Renault or Torro Rosso where the one driver is so much better than the other you will almost solely focus your attention, efforts and resources on that driver to achieve results.

Does anyone obviously think that they didn’t favor Senna over Berger? Surely not, and Berger probably knew it and was nonetheless fine with it.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that at the beginning of 2007, McLaren favored ALONSO! It was McLaren who switched the drivers in running order under the final pitstop in the first race of the year in Australia, moving Alonso ahead of Hamilton after Hamilton had been ahead of him the whole race. It was also McLaren who both pulled Hamilton into the pits early at Monaco (even though he was running heavier fuel than Alonso) to keep Alonso ahead and then further radioed Hamilton to not challenge Alonso when he was breathing down his neck.

It was only after Hamilton won two grands prix and built a lead in the driver’s championship that the team really started treating their drivers equally. They kept alternating fuel strategies among the drivers, which is how the controversy in Hungary began as Alonso was supposed to move ahead of Hamilton on the track in Q3 and get the extra lap of fuel burn. It was only in China when McLaren really favored Hamilton, as they had the chance to lock up the driver’s championship that weekend (and proceeded to blow it all away with a poor call on the tires).

Right now, the team are probably slightly favoring Hamilton, but it’s only favoritism in so far as that he gets first dibs on upgrades when only one is available. He’s gotten the upgrade in every race from the start of the year in which this has been the case, including both Germany and Hungary. It’s only right that he does, as he’s the champion. It’s up to Kovalainen to display form deserving of getting the upgrades in this type of situation, and so far he hasn’t.

How do you know how much fuel Lewis and Fernando had on board in the start of the race or after his first pit stop to adjust their times? You don´t know and there something missing in you figures, that is the second pit stop when even with much more fuel than Fernando (considering you figures!) Lewis stopped two laps earlier than him.

This second pit stop shows how Mclaren beaten Lewis on that Sunday…

What figures says is F Alonso was faster in Q3 than L Hamilton, fuel corrected or not, despite he had to make an extra stint in Q2 to beat him.

When you talk about “optimum strategy” I assume you are talking about “optimun race strategy”, so I cannot see how to have an extra-stint in Q2 was going to give an optimum race strategy to F Alonso.

As the above figures show, F Alonso win Q3 fair and square, corrected or not fuel corrected.

The rest are just opinions about how F Alonso felt or behaved…

Anyway, I agree with Mark Huges (and you) that, probably, Alonso (and McLaren -IMHO), underestimated Hamilton at the start of the season.

The point here is about “optimum strategy” and we can see in other report, written by Mark Hughes, how McLaren worked to ensure that Alonso would be have the best one to beat Lewis in Melbourne/2007:

“He totally underestimated Hamilton at the start. This lasted into the first three races. This lack of respect for Hamilton’s level made it extra difficult to accept when the rookie rivalled his speed – as he did immediately. When Alonso had to sacrifice a set of new tyres by making a second run in Q2 in Melbourne in order to beat Hamilton’s time and thereby ensure strategic preference in the race, he was irritated he’d had to do so. He was the double champion, the team should be ensuring they beat all the others by backing him, their best bet. Now he’d wasted a valuable bit of ammunition just to see off his team-mate.

— MARK HUGHES in Autosport”

Well…why were the new additions given to Ham and not kovi…They are equal after all.

If you read the media briefing by Martin Whitmarsh, you wouldn’t need to ask this pointless question.

And are they really equal? I would propose not. Apart from Germany, those two have had the same race package… how often do we see Heiki in front of Hamilton? And what about last year? They are clearly NOT equal, but have equal rights to equipment of course. But again, read Martin Whitmarshes media briefing for a very sound explanation.

There are too many people in the world who’d rather just flame the successful without any thought, instead of putting themselves into those shoes for a minute or two and having a proper think about things.

Or did your usage there indicate I must be old? Hey, like I used to tell Noah after a hard day’s work on the Ark, you’re only as old as you think.

Seriously, though, Granda took me to Silverstone for my 6th birthday, in 1956. Saw Fangio win another race on his way to his 4th Championship. I was hooked then, and still am, though some things I see today I know would make drivers like Fangio, Ascari and Senna spin in their graves.

Still, it’s Formula 1.