Hungary and a monumental McLaren migraine
Who would want to be Ron Dennis now? He must have aged ten years in this past week. Having started the season with better prospects than McLaren had enjoyed in years, he now heads a team which looks in serious danger of imploding. In January, Ron could look forward to a season with a double world champion and an impressive young protégé. Both drivers liked each other and got along like old friends. Happy days. Now relations between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are so bad that the pair aren't even talking to each other.
It all began when McLaren tried to "fix" qualifying on Saturday. Hamilton was supposed to let Alonso get past him and had agreed to do so in the briefings before he donned his helmet. But when it came to it, in the heat of battle on the race track, his instincts simply could not allow this. Alonso did not like Hamilton's behaviour a bit. To pay the young whippersnapper back, he blatantly ruined Hamilton's final qualifying lap. Having been given the all clear by the team to exit the pits after his last tyre change and knowing full well that Hamilton's car was parked behind his and ready to slip in for a quick tyre change, he sat stationary for a whole ten seconds while the world stared in disbelief. The last time we saw something so calculated and dishonest was when Michael Schumacher "parked" his car at a ridiculous place on the Monaco circuit and by so doing ensured that Alonso's qualifying lap was wrecked. Hamilton exited the pits for the final time on Saturday with insufficient time to complete a flying lap before the chequered flag was raised to indicate that the session was over. Understandably, the Englishman was seething with rage and yelling obscenities down his microphone at Ron Dennis. Punishments handed down by F1 stewards are never consistent. While last year Schumacher was demoted all the way to the back of the grid on Sunday because of his conduct on Saturday, Alonso only suffered a five place hit and was, therefore, unlikely to drop out of a points scoring position on a circuit where overtaking is impossible (hence the absolutely crucial nature of qualifying in Budapest).
Come Sunday and young Hamilton summoned his nerve and delivered a commanding performance. Leading every single lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix to deny Kimi Raikkonen a chance at the victory, the lad's mastery of the Hungaroring looked easy enough but was not. This was the hardest win yet of Hamilton's fledgling career. He searched deep within himself and found all he needed. You could see at the end of the race that it had not been easy. The youngster was knackered. McLaren, meanwhile, were not permitted by the stewards to participate in the constructors' championship because of their pathetic team games. Watching closely what happened on Saturday, I thought it a bit harsh to penalise the entire team like this. I thought Alonso should have had all his qualifying time erased (and therefore been relegated to the back of the grid) and his trainer should have been banned from being present trackside at any of the remaining Grands Prix this season. I say this because the additional ten seconds Alonso took while sitting in his car were counted down for him by the slimy toad sitting on the pit wall plotting against young Hamilton.
Things have come to a pretty pass, haven't they? If you cut through everything you are drawn to one inescapable conclusion: Lewis Hamilton is too good. Fernando Alonso has been upset because the team won't restrain Hamilton. Alonso's men within McLaren are determined to do all they can to assist their man - even if this includes sabotaging his team-mate. My theory a few weeks ago about the future make up of the team is proving to be accurate. Alonso's hatred of his English team-mate extends equally to his English employers. The emotion was encapsulated in some of the flags being waved by Spanish fans at the circuit this weekend. They said "McLaren = Traidora" (McLaren = Traitors). But where is the treachery exactly? Does it lie in the fact that McLaren went out and found the most talented driver ever to break out onto the scene? Are they supposed to break Hamilton's legs or place boulders in his car? What do you do about a driver with so much ability? Well, you use it. I can understand Alonso' emotions, though, and am now more convinced than ever that whatever it costs, Alonso will walk at the end of this season. A proud man from a long line of Spaniard warriors, Alonso feels like he has been kicked squarely in the bollocks.
Alonso may still win the world championship. There are only 7 points in it after all with six races to go. Hamilton's inexperience set against Alonso's should mean advantage Alonso; but not everyone is so sure. I walked into a bookmaker's shop on Monday to place a tenner on Hamilton. I knew the odds were not going to be good - the time for doing this flew by months ago - but reckoned I couldn't lose my money was likely to make enough, perhaps, for a pint to toast the lad's success. The lady at the counter smiled at me. "Are you serious?" she asked. The odds were 11:10. For my tenner I would have all of £1 to celebrate Hamilton's success at the end of the season. Hopeless. Bookies are rarely wrong on these things. So, sadly, (and I know I shall be receiving email from my sporting friends for disavowing my sporting instincts so often displayed on the turf, at the dogs and elsewhere but, dash it, a chap's got to be careful with tenners in these straitened times!) I cannot recommend a punt unless you are doing it for satisfaction rather than monetary gain.
The main problem McLaren as a team now have is managing their two drivers. Feuding team-mates are no recipe for success - particularly if one is so hell bent on outdoing the other that all thoughts of the constructors' championship (or even his employment contract) have flown out with his reason. This is the sort of scenario which results in team-mates taking each other out. That can only be good news for Ferrari. Raikkonen and Massa needn't worry too much about getting pole. If the two McLarens take each other out at the start of the next few races, life becomes infinitely simpler for the scarlet boys.
We haven't had as much pleasure watching shenanigans on and off the circuit in decades. It's great fun, isn't it? Who can wait three weeks until Turkey?!
Gitau
7 August 2007
It all began when McLaren tried to "fix" qualifying on Saturday. Hamilton was supposed to let Alonso get past him and had agreed to do so in the briefings before he donned his helmet. But when it came to it, in the heat of battle on the race track, his instincts simply could not allow this. Alonso did not like Hamilton's behaviour a bit. To pay the young whippersnapper back, he blatantly ruined Hamilton's final qualifying lap. Having been given the all clear by the team to exit the pits after his last tyre change and knowing full well that Hamilton's car was parked behind his and ready to slip in for a quick tyre change, he sat stationary for a whole ten seconds while the world stared in disbelief. The last time we saw something so calculated and dishonest was when Michael Schumacher "parked" his car at a ridiculous place on the Monaco circuit and by so doing ensured that Alonso's qualifying lap was wrecked. Hamilton exited the pits for the final time on Saturday with insufficient time to complete a flying lap before the chequered flag was raised to indicate that the session was over. Understandably, the Englishman was seething with rage and yelling obscenities down his microphone at Ron Dennis. Punishments handed down by F1 stewards are never consistent. While last year Schumacher was demoted all the way to the back of the grid on Sunday because of his conduct on Saturday, Alonso only suffered a five place hit and was, therefore, unlikely to drop out of a points scoring position on a circuit where overtaking is impossible (hence the absolutely crucial nature of qualifying in Budapest).
Come Sunday and young Hamilton summoned his nerve and delivered a commanding performance. Leading every single lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix to deny Kimi Raikkonen a chance at the victory, the lad's mastery of the Hungaroring looked easy enough but was not. This was the hardest win yet of Hamilton's fledgling career. He searched deep within himself and found all he needed. You could see at the end of the race that it had not been easy. The youngster was knackered. McLaren, meanwhile, were not permitted by the stewards to participate in the constructors' championship because of their pathetic team games. Watching closely what happened on Saturday, I thought it a bit harsh to penalise the entire team like this. I thought Alonso should have had all his qualifying time erased (and therefore been relegated to the back of the grid) and his trainer should have been banned from being present trackside at any of the remaining Grands Prix this season. I say this because the additional ten seconds Alonso took while sitting in his car were counted down for him by the slimy toad sitting on the pit wall plotting against young Hamilton.
Things have come to a pretty pass, haven't they? If you cut through everything you are drawn to one inescapable conclusion: Lewis Hamilton is too good. Fernando Alonso has been upset because the team won't restrain Hamilton. Alonso's men within McLaren are determined to do all they can to assist their man - even if this includes sabotaging his team-mate. My theory a few weeks ago about the future make up of the team is proving to be accurate. Alonso's hatred of his English team-mate extends equally to his English employers. The emotion was encapsulated in some of the flags being waved by Spanish fans at the circuit this weekend. They said "McLaren = Traidora" (McLaren = Traitors). But where is the treachery exactly? Does it lie in the fact that McLaren went out and found the most talented driver ever to break out onto the scene? Are they supposed to break Hamilton's legs or place boulders in his car? What do you do about a driver with so much ability? Well, you use it. I can understand Alonso' emotions, though, and am now more convinced than ever that whatever it costs, Alonso will walk at the end of this season. A proud man from a long line of Spaniard warriors, Alonso feels like he has been kicked squarely in the bollocks.
Alonso may still win the world championship. There are only 7 points in it after all with six races to go. Hamilton's inexperience set against Alonso's should mean advantage Alonso; but not everyone is so sure. I walked into a bookmaker's shop on Monday to place a tenner on Hamilton. I knew the odds were not going to be good - the time for doing this flew by months ago - but reckoned I couldn't lose my money was likely to make enough, perhaps, for a pint to toast the lad's success. The lady at the counter smiled at me. "Are you serious?" she asked. The odds were 11:10. For my tenner I would have all of £1 to celebrate Hamilton's success at the end of the season. Hopeless. Bookies are rarely wrong on these things. So, sadly, (and I know I shall be receiving email from my sporting friends for disavowing my sporting instincts so often displayed on the turf, at the dogs and elsewhere but, dash it, a chap's got to be careful with tenners in these straitened times!) I cannot recommend a punt unless you are doing it for satisfaction rather than monetary gain.
The main problem McLaren as a team now have is managing their two drivers. Feuding team-mates are no recipe for success - particularly if one is so hell bent on outdoing the other that all thoughts of the constructors' championship (or even his employment contract) have flown out with his reason. This is the sort of scenario which results in team-mates taking each other out. That can only be good news for Ferrari. Raikkonen and Massa needn't worry too much about getting pole. If the two McLarens take each other out at the start of the next few races, life becomes infinitely simpler for the scarlet boys.
We haven't had as much pleasure watching shenanigans on and off the circuit in decades. It's great fun, isn't it? Who can wait three weeks until Turkey?!
Gitau
7 August 2007
posted by Gitau at 6:06 pm
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