Alonso will quit F1 if calendar grows to 25 races

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso says he will quit F1 if Liberty Media realises its plan of extending the calendar to 25 races.

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On this day in F1

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106 comments on “Alonso will quit F1 if calendar grows to 25 races”

  1. A warning about the Alonso interview: The quotes are taken from a show that was broadcasted last Sunday, but I’m pretty sure it was recorded during the winter, before the pre-season tests. It certainly wasn’t recorded recently.

    1. Thanks for the heads up, unfortunately the media uses these interviews to fill the gaps between races.

      I’m with Kaltenborn, Button was performing well, unlucky to have such a poor weekend, went for a risky move and rather than apologise, claims he told the FIA drivers can’t see who’s behind them. This reminds me of that time Button ran into Maldonado in Singapore, Jenson managed to insult the most unlikely victim of a shunt.

      After Melbourne Mercedes were all philosophical about their car, their pace and their rivals. Now Hamilton is playing mind games and all of the sudden Pirelli is associated with Ferrari, both are Italian but I’m pretty sure Ferrari didn’t get what they wanted in 2011, 2012 Pirelli made the tyres just like RB wanted, 2013 they eventually went Merc’s and RB’s way, ever since 2014 there hasn’t been many complaints of favouritism and particularly now that teams choose their allocations rather than Pirelli getting harder and harder as the seasons went past favouring the quicker car.

      1. One more thing on tyres. Hamilton suddenly got strong again as the temps went up, rubber went down the track and fuel went down, the opposite can be said of Raikkonen’s pace. The tyres are always hard to figure out. Of the 3 top teams, only Vettel has been consistently on top of his game thus far.

        1. Maybe if Hamilton had bothered to turn up to the tyre tests he may have learned something!

      2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        1st June 2017, 9:22

        @peartree

        “This reminds me of that time Button ran into Maldonado in Singapore, Jenson managed to insult the most unlikely victim of a shunt.”

        I may be wrong but I’m sure this was in China. It was here when he ran into Maldonado and from the interviews on the BBC, Button pretty quickly admitted it was his fault and he got given 2 points on his license and a 5 second penalty. He may have blamed Maldonado to start with but he seemed to admit after that it was totally his fault from what I’ve seen.

        Even with his latest incident. I do sort of understand what he says. Plenty of other drivers such as Verstappen have done very similar moves to him. And the drivers that were about to get overtakes seemed to be more aware. But yes, Button shouldn’t have takes this risk. I remember something Verstappen did on Ericsson in China 2015 I think and it will have resulted in Ericsson retiring if he didn’t use his mirrors and notice Verstappen lunge in down the inside. People remember that as a great overtake but it was just pure look that Ericsson noticed him and had to let him though. He had no right to. I do think that if Wehrlein had gone just slightly wider here in Monaco, this may have resulted in a bump and maybe a bit of damage, but not a retirement. But Wehrlein shouldn’t have had to do this so yes, it is clearly still Button to blame.

        1. @thegianthogweed No I was referring to singapore. Button called Maldonado a mental, iconic moment.
          That corner has nothing to do with the instances you are alluding to.

  2. “No matter how great a person is…ego-centrism will annihilate that greatness.”

  3. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    31st May 2017, 1:23

    Alonso’s sad face is back again. He wanted a totally different trophy last Sunday, and it seemed possible until that Honda engine broke his dreams again.

    1. Power of Dreams

      1. Power of Wrecking Dreams

      2. Honda – The power to ruin dreams

        1. @andrewf1 Cruel, but funny nonetheless :)

    2. Well, Honda won the race

  4. Quit and move to IndyCar full time. You obviously enjoy it more, and have a chance of winning again rather than running at the back of the field.

    1. Fernando Alonso,

      We have an old saying in England…..something about jumping out of a frying pan
      and straight into the fire. A comment on poor judgement I guess you would say.
      And it seems to me that another UK saying about…’if the cap fits, you must wear it’.

      This cap fits you all too well, Senor Alonso. In F1, like everything else worth doing
      in this life good timing and good judgement are vital. You are by far one of the very
      fastest drivers F1 has ever produced. You have, on quite a few occasions, made
      even the current dog of a car that McLaren/Honda are shamefully offering, do things
      that no-one else could have come anywhere near achieving. You are a legend in your
      own lifetime.

      But your timing in vital areas like when to desert a poorly performing team is woeful.
      Ferrari ? Disastrous decision wasn’t it ? Mclaren Mk 1 ? Not too good either.
      Current Mclaren ? …..you should have walked out two years ago.

      F1 needs you very badly. But you need someone to give you good advice very
      badly indeed. Advice you would need to take.

      For all that, you do deserve another shot in a top car…but your chances of getting
      one grow narrower every day. And Max Verstappen is less than twenty years old !

      1. Well said @loen. You should probably compose some proverbs and sayings for the modern world!

  5. Estaban de los Casas
    31st May 2017, 3:22

    Sad face for the man who races HONDA powerplants.

    How can you blame him ??

    1. Takuma Sato races Honda poweplants, and i believe he is happy.

  6. I see pride. I bet any ‘sadness’ has left by now and I bet he’s buoyed by his experience.

  7. If they go to 25 races, i think only the WDC drivers will contest all the races. I suspect the reserve drivers would be in the car for 5 to 8 of the races anyway. Maybe this will be better since the reserve drivers will get a chance to race?

  8. Mercedes needs another illegal tyre test. Or how they managed to make the tyres work until last year is a German mistery?

    1. +1

      When they manage to run half the distance with the US tyres last year in Canada they weren’t complaining…Lewis and Toto = bunch of whining crybabies.

    2. No, they just need a hint from me… And, they’ll get it.

    3. @johnmilk, it isn’t just Mercedes that have complained, with Red Bull also having complained that the behaviour of the tyres is not to their liking – however, you don’t seem to have levelled any criticism at them for some of the comments they have made about the tyres this year.

      1. Didn’t saw it. Hit me with a link and I guarantee that I will do so. While you are at it, if you find Ferrari or McL complaining let me know too

      2. Also it’s not like it is in the round up, so don’t really get what you’re trying to insinuate

  9. The rookie of the year should have went to Ed Jones no?

    1. Not necessarily, there’s 4 criteria that goes to deciding that title, and race result was only one.

      1. The other three are:
        – qualifying position
        – laps led;
        – name must be Alonso ;)

        1. @f1-liners ah so he won by default then ;)

    2. Alonso also had the fastest average lap time at the time the engine broke.

  10. Fantastic COTD. It’s funny because it’s true.

    1. Fukobayashi (@)
      31st May 2017, 10:31

      +1

  11. Vettel’s results this year are exactly the same as Fernando’s in his title-winning 2006 season. Wins in the 1st, 3rd and 6th races and 2nd places in the other 3 races. Comparing Hamilton in 2017 and Schumacher in 2006, we see that Hamilton is in only a slightly better shape than Schumacher was back then. Both had 2 wins, 2 second places each. But while Schumacher’s other results were a 6th place and a DNF, Hamilton’s other two results are a 4th and 7th place.

    If the trend continues and we are in for a 2006-style showdown, I don’t mind at all.

  12. Vettel’s Monaco win fires up Ferrari fans (Reuters)

    “I guess in these small moments you just realise that it’s a special group of people.”

    So, when Red Bull were winning every year, that wasn’t a special group of people?

    1. Not to Ferrari fans I guess @scottie :)

  13. Bye Alonso. Don’t let the doo

    1. *door hit you in the a** on the way out

      1. Thanks for your insightful comment :!

      2. I think…a) 25 races is just a concept for now. Much would have to be worked out before that would happen, and they’re not even sure if they should do that.

        b) FA will probably be set to retire from F1 anyway, by the time they go to 25 races if they even do.

        c) FA wouldn’t mind 25 races if he was fighting for wins and a WDC, like he will be, in his Mercedes, starting next year.

  14. A bit inconsistent by Alonso. During his Indy 500 weeks he spent as much time on one race as a double or triple header in F1.
    A 25 race season in F1 is nothing more than 8 Indy races :p

    1. Tony Mansell
      31st May 2017, 9:43

      You think its the racetime that’s the problem, not the extra travel?

      whoosh

      1. pastaman (@)
        31st May 2017, 12:49

        He’s joking. Whooosh!

      2. Fair point @Tony_Mansell.
        During Alonso’s Indy weekends he had to fly to the USA twice; a normal double header tends to be 1 trip ;)

        PS Tony, please note the ‘;)’ emoticon at the end of my comments and/or read @pastaman‘s comment.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      31st May 2017, 11:20

      @f1-liners – Yeah but time flies when you’re having fun…..

      1. Time flies like an arrow…fruit flies like a banana.

    3. The Indy 500 is a “season” onto itself. I think 25 races is perfect and easily attainable. Just cut out 2 weeks of testing, start and end the season with back to back to back races.

  15. Regarding the ”Formula One: Australian Grand Prix set to return to mid-March to avoid clash with start of AFL season” article: How is the Australian GP being run when the AFL (some local football league) season is in progress any different to the US GP being run during the NHL, NFL, or NBA season, for example, or to some extent the Canadian GP being run during the Stanley Cup Finals (NHL)? If those races being run during local sports seasons isn’t a problem then how can Australian GP being run within their local football season be a problem?

    1. @jerejj

      I take it you’re not from Melbourne then? Some local football league? AFL is religion here, as in every single Melbournian has a team. Everyone.

      – NBA has 30 teams in a country of 320 million
      – NHL has 30 teams in a country of 320 million
      – NFL has 32 teams in a country of 320 million
      – AFL has 18 teams in a country of 23 million, 9 of those teams are in Melbourne, population 4.6 million, with another team 40 minutes up the road.

      Fact is, if a local derby AFL game is on in Melbourne at the same time it would severely affect attendances at the race.

      Put it this way – if the AFL Grand Final was broadcast to all of Australia at the same time as the Grand Prix the GP would not stand a chance.

      1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures

        Have a look at how frequently the AFL (or some local football league, as you put it) comes up in these lists. Bear in mind Australia has only 23 million people, and also bear in mind that 10 of these teams are in or very close to Melbourne.

        1. ”Fact is, if a local derby AFL game is on in Melbourne at the same time it would severely affect attendances at the race.” – The following wording from the article contradicts your claim: ”the move to March 23-26 didn’t hurt crowds”

          1. Local derby is considered any match between the historic powerhouses – Collingwood, Carlton, Hawthorn Geelong or Essendon. None occurred over that weekend.

            Learn about the subject matter, then debate.

        2. @bamboo Yes, I’m not from Melbourne, and to clarify my ‘Some local football league’ comment: I typed that because not many people are familiar with Australian football. More people are aware of NHL, NFL, and NBA leagues than AFL.

          1. The facts provided suggest its not “some local football league”.

            Learn about the subject matter, then debate.

      2. He’s probably from NSW, lol.

        1. NSW and Queensland as states are blind drunk at the moment. ITS ORIGIN!!

          His grammar is too good for him to be drunk.

          1. @bamboo You sound a bit on a high horse here. I think we have all the facts we need. AFL is big enough that F1 is working to avoid a clash again. The clash didn’t affect attendance at the race, just media coverage toward F1 due to AFL starting. Also, it is not factual for you to compare the potency of the Grand Final to the F1 race and their respective attendance, as that is not the reality.

          2. @robbie

            AFL is big enough the organisers are working to avoid the clash. In this case it is the state government flipping the bill. And AFL is a “state” sport. F1 is a once a year event, but in any country you would have a tough task to run it against a local Grand Final in a national sport.

          3. @robbie I think people have learnt not to take your bait, but thanks for the progressive input, as always.

        2. The other local football league. Lol. That would explain why the streets are quiet.

        3. @F1Junky ”He’s probably from NSW, lol.” – I’m not from NSW let alone Australia.

          @bamboo ”His grammar is too good for him to be drunk.” – You got that one right, LOL.

    2. That was under Bernie. As contracts get renewed and the calender starts getting reconfigured, I suspect Liberty will begin to give more thought to other nations’ clashes too. Put it like this: I’d be surprised if the British Grand Prix was allowed to clash with Wimbledon often, going forward.

      1. @alianora-la-canta Avoiding a weekend clash with the men’s single’s finals (assuming that’s what you’re referring to about Wimbledon) would be easier if it had a consistent date.

        1. @jerejj It is, and you are correct. It is my belief that consistent dates that don’t clash with obvious competing events will become the norm rather than the execption.

  16. Well why didn’t Ferrari bring vettel in the lap after kimi stopped??? That would have made it fair. And don’t tell me they were worried about bottas behind…

    1. 2 reasons:
      1) Seb was still providing very quick times
      2) Seb needed to stay out to cover Ricciardo.

      1. If vet had pitted the lap after Kimi, he would have come out ahead of ricciardo

        1. As others have already answered to you. Pitting Vettel immediately would have risked losing the win the Ricciardo.

        2. If VET pitted 1 lap after RAI, all RIC would’ve needed to do was run long enough to get in front of one or both Ferraris. With Vettel still in front he could only race RAI. Redbull chose to capitalize once RIC was in front of BOT, but if a race win is for grabs, they might have decided the risk was worth taking.

    2. Because he would’ve been in 3rd position behind Ricciardo. He HAD to cover Ricciardo to stay in front of him, that’s what conspiracy theorist fail to realize.

      1. Yeah, because Raikkonen finished behind Ricciardo…

        1. Raikkonen was ahead of Vettel.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      31st May 2017, 11:24

      @sato113 If they didn’t, Ricciardo could have stayed out and a safetycar or VSC could have won him the race.

    4. Forcing VET to stop 1 lap after RAI that I would consider team orders!
      @sato113

      If VET was happy with his tyres and lapping faster than RAI on new ones, then why pit him???

      1. @f1-liners
        Nailed it! It is very ironic how people complain about team orders, and as remedy suggest, guess what, …team orders…

        @sato113
        Having the priority as leading driver to choose the optimal pit stop lap, doesn’t include to be able to decide when your team mate has to be in the pits.. It (should) only means that if both drivers are on the same strategy then the optimal lap for pit stop is the same lap for both. Then the leading one gets it, and driver behind usually takes the next lap because normally it would not make sense to wait longer. But that is not a must and certainly he can decide to stay out longer. You just don’t do that normally because you would loose just more and more time. But not so if you have much more pace than your team mate.

        Rai just went to slow in the first stint. If intentional or not is beside the point. There was a safe window to pit (even with some problem in the pits, yes things can go wrong in the pits, it should be alright with having some extra margin!) and Rai was much faster with SS than US, so it clearly was right from that point of view, which is to make sure to have a Ferrari 1-2.

        That doesn’t mean Ferrari didn’t try to get Vettel some help with the pit stops, but it is far from blatant, and Rai made it very easy for them in that case. Because Ferrari used the absolute and undeniably safest and most optimal strategy to make sure it is going to be a 1-2 whoever might be in front.. And like it or not that is their job in the first place.

        So Rai, please don’t cruise along even if it is tracks like Monaco. Push properly!

  17. Fukobayashi (@)
    31st May 2017, 10:36

    To me, Ferrari clearly engineered that result however they don’t deserve any flack because Mercedes has engineered a result at least twice this season already and set the precedent.

    1. The only problem is, no one knew what would work, the over or under cut. Proved by redbull when they tried to undercut Bottas, which proves that Merc also didn’t knew because they responded. Ferrari decided to pit Kimi right after too, because they also didn’t knew if he would be quicker on the brand new set of tyres.

      So we can all stop this non-sense, unless someone has actual proof that Ferrari intended to manufacture the result

      1. Also, Verstappens undercut would probably have worked if he had hit his pit marks!

    2. What many seem to be missing is that when Vettel is behind he likes to stay out. Put in fast laps in clean air. Then go for the overcut. Around 4 or more laps than the leader.

      1. I’ve also realized this, but I don’t think it’s an overcut attempt, it’s more a question of having fresher tyres at the end of the next stint (or at the end of the race) so he can try to overtake.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      31st May 2017, 11:26

      They don’t deserve any flak because Vettel is faster than Kimi, has a load more points and will be the man battling Lewis for the title this year. I don’t believe they did it deliberately but I imagine they were pretty happy when Vettel came out in front.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        31st May 2017, 11:27

        Just to add – I hate team orders but Ferrari are battling a team who has already used them twice this year.

        1. To add a dilemma. Seb doesn’t know what team orders are. They seem to be words that he doesn’t understand. As he just goes for it.

  18. About the tyres iirc the ferarri boys and redbull boys were always testing the prototypes last year, I remember Hamilton attending the Abu Dhabi test but Werhlein took over after he became unwell.

    1. Ok but remember too, they weren’t in proper 2017 cars, the tires were prototypes, and the drivers would have had no idea whether or not the tires they were using were eventually going to be on their cars this season. This was all ‘blind’ testing in that regard so LH didn’t miss anything. Werhlein’s work would have sufficed at the time.

  19. Tyre testing is a science. Driver’s get a feel and engineers get data. Vettel is studying engineering which helps with understanding both the feel and the data. Would explain why the car is working for him at the moment.

  20. On the tires: My guess is that the weight distribution on the Merc is off for these new tyres, and downforce can only correct to a certain margin. Last years they were spot on, and Ferrari was of, causing them similar problems…

    1. Mercs do have a longer wheel base. That would be a factor in WD.

    2. I think it’s not that simple. W08 is very complicated machine and Barcelona update shows they go brutal way with it. Complicated car means unpredictable in some situations. Moreover, Lewis still doesn’t get this year’s tires.

  21. So who exactly is Alonso warning?

    1. Nobody. He doesn’t use the word. Ask the author of the article who is the one that put that word in the heading.

  22. Alonso’s quote would pack more punch if he wasn’t already on the brink of retirement from F1.

    1. Except that we don’t know how on the brink he is. For all we know he has 5 more years in F1.

  23. Alonso isn’t the only one that doesn’t want the calender to expand to 25 races as nobody that i’ve spoken to from inside F1 wants that many races.

    1. Understandable. Hey, I’m glad they’re hinting at clawing back some of the iconic venues if they can, but perhaps there are some races that could go, that many would agree on, so that they keep it to around the number of races they have now. I know it’s easier said than done, and it sounds like a 25 race season is just a concept for now. If nobody inside F1 wants it then I think they will be able to make Carey see the light, if they haven’t already.

    2. @gt-racer, if the recent fan survey by the Motorsport network is reliable, it seems that the fans aren’t keen either – it seems that they want to keep the calendar at the current length (around 19-21 races) at most.

  24. You need weekly races. Believe me, the teams also want it, they just want Chase to pay for the travel expenses.
    If it was me: capitalize on the seasons. February to March: Asian. April to June: European. August to September: Americas Tour. October to December would give you the chance to try different layouts at an all-star tour like reversed, semi-ovals or sprint races.

    If you have kids or teenage friends you’ll realize, they want to see heroes up close, especially millennials. they want to follow them every week, that also why soccer sky-rocketed after the 90s.

    1. @xiasitlo Some of the Asian venues are unpleasantly cool/cold for F1 in February and March, and the same applies to almost all European venues in April and May while Austin is unpleasantly hot for F1 in August and most of September.

      1. I’m aware of that. Honestly, yes some of the tracks we’ll visit aren’t Grade 1 or grade 2 tracks but we all have seen that a big stack of money can solve any bureaucratic prohibition. You start after Melbourne and the Oceanic circuits with the Arabian peninsula. Something like;
        Feb week 1: Melbourne
        Feb week 2: Highland Motorsports Park (Grade 3 if I recall right, we can fix that.)
        Week 3 and 4 you can visit Bahrain and Losail. You can start March at Baku or Istanbul.
        Average temp is Japan is 7 and is China 13 degrees around March. Some of the British and Chinese GP were held at those temps and more then light drizzles and people still showed up at in large numbers. So I don’t see the problem. The tyres would last fine. Just slower. It wouldn’t be the coldest temps by a large margin.

        Austin you can visit the end of September, 32 degrees as average wouldn’t be the hottest GP in the year.
        And the Euro GPs you would start from the south to the north. Spain and Italy are already around 10/15 in march.

  25. Fingers crossed for 25 races. One less egocentric overrated driver in F1.

    How many races do we need to get rid of Verstappen?

    1. Lol I like both FA and MV but I did find your post funny.

    2. Wait, this headline was about Alonso, not Hamilton.

  26. 25 races….maybe 32? 18 races are perfect! but it’s all about making money…

  27. Let him quit! So tired of him – he would never be a part of my team even if he is the most talented he never learn the word teamwork…

  28. Why stop at 25 races? In most years, there are 52 weekends. Let’s take the last two weekends of the year off for Christmas and New Year, and before that, have 3 weeks of testing. This should allow for 47 races in a season and should result in an increased profit for Liberty.

    (just joking, if you didn’t notice.)

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