2017 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 24 - 26 March

[Manoah2u]

Indeed, the hating for Alonso is as always.

Alonso did a stellar job in driving an impaired vehicle. I suggest you check out the full onboard shots of his race to see just what actually happened and why he was hampered and eventually had to forfeit.

Just how good Alonso is was readable on where he qualified his car and where he would have finished the race had his car had no technical issues, and especially, compare it to supposed 'new wonder' VanDoorne.

Alonso did nothing wrong, and actually put that car where it didnt belong. It's highly unfortunate he's not in a better car, the world is missing out on him not being in the top teams batteling.
i still hate to the guts how he didnt go to Mercedes when the opportunity arose.

[PhillipM]

but watch Imola 2005. bye.

12 years ago.

[Schuttelberg]

Indeed, the hating for Alonso is as always.

Alonso did a stellar job in driving an impaired vehicle. I suggest you check out the full onboard shots of his race to see just what actually happened and why he was hampered and eventually had to forfeit.

Just how good Alonso is was readable on where he qualified his car and where he would have finished the race had his car had no technical issues, and especially, compare it to supposed 'new wonder' VanDoorne.

Alonso did nothing wrong, and actually put that car where it didnt belong. It's highly unfortunate he's not in a better car, the world is missing out on him not being in the top teams batteling.
i still hate to the guts how he didnt go to Mercedes when the opportunity arose.

I just love it when people say that.

A car has a top speed of 200 Km/Ph but the driver pushes the pedal so hard that he can clock 210 Km/Ph and beat his nearest rival who has a top speed of 210 Km/Ph but didn't have the balls to drive at that speed and my favourite driver pulled off a miracle.

These are childish claims usually a sign of desperation used in an argument when nothing is left to cling on to. I think someone famously said that when Science fails you have to pin your hopes on the supernatural.

Alonso has been delivering the maximum possible consistently and yes, he does it slightly more consistently than Hamilton and Vettel but if I were a team boss, as a 'package' Hamilton and Vettel would any day of the week be more attractive. I don't think they're 'that far behind' Alonso, although he and his fans are convinced of his supernatural powers in terms of driving, not on a Saturday anyway and are far easier to manage than Alonso. All star drivers have ego's, but in my 24th year now as a F1 follower, I've not seen one bigger than that of Alonso.

Mind you, I believe the third title is his destiny and he will achieve it, but pardon me for not knowing which team it will be with.

[The_table]

2 WDC's and THREE times second in the wdc (3 out of 5 years with ferrari he was second...
(this is soo offtopic)

[Fifty]

Frukostscones... that's the problem. Everyone bases their opinions of years ago performance. He may (or may not) have been great at one time. I am just talking recent years.

I don't think Alonso will get his third title. Na team can build a fast car, but he won't be able to communicate to his engineers on how to get it set up right.
I think any place past 5th or 6th is a matter of strategy, luck, and who didn't break down.

I was never a fan of vettel. I think the atmosphere at redbull made him a jack ass. And now that he is elsewhere he is a completely different person. Even Webber says the same, and which is why they are friends now.
But all the engineers know and admit that vettel is dedicated to the team and is talented at helping the car design be better. And he wants to be a team player.
I can only imagine at redbull they pitted those two guys against each other when he was there. I know a guy who was sponsored by redbull in the ski arena. The attitide was "you better beat your team mates or your fired" and "if you don't perform we will hold stuff from you and play games" and it created a horrible atmosphere. But that's why Red Bull has all those extreme sports guys that Dang near kill themselves.

But in the vettel Ferrari years he was told that he spends too much time at the factory trying to help, and he is a huge supporter of his team mate, and he is actually supportive of the fans and wants the sport to be better.
I don't like his crying.
I think he is the best technical driver over all on the track. Hamilton and ricciardo tied for second. Everyone else is mixed because they have little bits of talent but not the total package.
And I think Hamilton is slipping because he is so used to clean air being in front that he forgot how to catch and pass and work through traffic. I think his mind gets to him.

Wow. I totally went off topic.

[FrukostScones]

Frukostscones... that's the problem. Everyone bases their opinions of years ago performance. He may (or may not) have been great at one time. I am just talking recent years.

I don't think Alonso will get his third title. Na team can build a fast car, but he won't be able to communicate to his engineers on how to get it set up right.
I think any place past 5th or 6th is a matter of strategy, luck, and who didn't break down.

I was never a fan of vettel. I think the atmosphere at redbull made him a jack ass. And now that he is elsewhere he is a completely different person. Even Webber says the same, and which is why they are friends now.
But all the engineers know and admit that vettel is dedicated to the team and is talented at helping the car design be better. And he wants to be a team player.
I can only imagine at redbull they pitted those two guys against each other when he was there. I know a guy who was sponsored by redbull in the ski arena. The attitide was "you better beat your team mates or your fired" and "if you don't perform we will hold stuff from you and play games" and it created a horrible atmosphere. But that's why Red Bull has all those extreme sports guys that Dang near kill themselves.

But in the vettel Ferrari years he was told that he spends too much time at the factory trying to help, and he is a huge supporter of his team mate, and he is actually supportive of the fans and wants the sport to be better.
I don't like his crying.
I think he is the best technical driver over all on the track. Hamilton and ricciardo tied for second. Everyone else is mixed because they have little bits of talent but not the total package.
And I think Hamilton is slipping because he is so used to clean air being in front that he forgot how to catch and pass and work through traffic. I think his mind gets to him.

Wow. I totally went off topic.

Vettel is written with capital V.
but good read... yeah, too OT all this ying yang. but still fun
Great Day! Motobikes were a bit more intense. but F1 is battle of engineers anyway.

[Schuttelberg]

Did anyone else today get the feeling that the start was an anti-climax?

[Just_a_fan]

Didn't watch the race. As everyone is talking about Alonso, I assume the race was boring.

[Sieper]

I am not a Alonso fan, But he is not mediocre, far from it. Sure he is good in his own pr, a bit like sainz, maybe you need to do so in spain to survive. And even Vandoorne today didn't suck, at all. he f.i. had to replace his steer and reboot the car, he didn't make a pit stop error. Today Alonso only had to concede p10 after getting hit on the rear wheel in a failed attempt by Ocon to pass him. Only on the straight after that they could pass when he had a slightly damaged suspension. If you wan't to cut him down for grumbling that in itself is fine, but please judge the drive on its actual merit.

[Fifty]

Did anyone else today get the feeling that the start was an anti-climax?

Yes. I'm happy it was clean, but it seemed a weird conservative start.
New year jitters amongst all the drivers now they were responsible for the clutch?

[Facts Only]

Can we just have a separate "Fernando Alonso argument" thread. It's the same old pointless arguing about the same bloke over and over again.

[Fifty]

I think its over, we are on to talking about the start.

[Vasconia]

Did anyone else today get the feeling that the start was an anti-climax?

I guess its quite normal to see a conservative start in the first race, tough it was slightly underwhelming.

[Vasconia]

This race was like going back to 2000. Exciting because we saw drivers pushing every single lap(so much missed!), and exciting because we saw a real battle(not overtaking but at least putting some pressure) between two awesome drivers and two great tems.

But also reminds me the worst of those years:

75% of the field lapped.
Almost no overtakes.

I guess there won´t be so many complains if there is a battle for the victory but if not, races could be boring as f...

On the other hand, Vettel´s race was perfect, he seemed to have(at least) Hamilton´s same pace so he did the job perfectly well and Lewis looked very nervous on his radio messages, I think this was (partially) responsible of the bad strategy that the team took.

Bottas did a good job in the second half. Quite curious because everybody expected to see a not very good race by him, but he was much better than Kimi who looked out of the pace. I was not expecting that.

I don´t catch the Alonso controversy. He was tenth, I mean TENTH, with this McLaren. Further explanation no required.

[Vettelswonmeover]

I haven't seen the entire discussion before but Australia was an ok race imho. I'm very happy that Vettel & Ferrari won but I am not convinced that Ferrari has the car to beat the Merc all year round. One factor which went in their favour was the higher track temps. Ferrari always struggle in the lower temps so China will show a more accurate picture.
Secondly, Australia has been a notoriously unreliable indicator of the F1 pecking order. I remember the first year of the hybrid era when Jenson Button was 2nd and Kevin Magnussen was 4th (later converted to 3rd after Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification) in a McLaren Mercedes. Later that year, McLaren ended way way off the pace. Even if you do consider that Merc would have reduced support towards the end of the year, McLaren were off the pace.
That said, Ferrari look to have the second best car comfortably. But will they be able to develop successfully over the year? Red Bull cannot be written off

Now, why is there so much hate for Alonso? The guy does a lot of self-PR but there is no denying that he is one of the best F1 drivers of the past 15 years atleast. Yes, he has attracted controversy but one cannot deny his talent.He has managed to get a result from an underperforming Renault, Ferrari & now McLaren Honda so many times. Yes, he may not be a team player but even Hamilton is not so. Every great driver like Senna, Schumacher etc always had a little bit of selfishness. Alonso's career has been marred by poor choice in selecting teams. He chose to return to Renault when Red Bull had given him an offer. He chose to go to McLaren when he should have stayed at Ferrari. Age is not on his side and I do not think that he will win his 3rd title. But he deserves respect. He always outperforms the car. Alonso is like Jose Mourinho. Unquestionably great but will always divide opinion.