Vettel Rosberg press conference antics

[Triumph]

I never used to associate Germans with humour until I saw Henning Wehn. I think he's hilarious!

Regarding Vettel, I expect he is quite relieved that the Ferrari is a half-decent car this year. It certainly seems to suit him. I can only imagine how Alonso is feeling having taken that risk and jumped ship. I'm still expecting a big controversy involving him this year.

[anfield5]

I am not 100% sure Vettel was trying to be funny. Light-heated yes - comical no. When he basically told Rosb, that he (Vettel) actually liked his team mate (suggesting Rosb and Ham don't get along) he was being genuine.

Having said that Seb does have a sense of humor and a bit of a cheeky side (sometimes misplaced and not always appreciated by some fans)

[Warriwa]

He's very dry in his humour which is perhaps why Brits get him and German's not so much lol. He has a lot of fans here by all accounts. I remember he did a piece at the British GP a few years ago where he admitted he loves British comedy and the less said about German comedy the better.

Hamilton "Winning a race feels better than sex"

Vettel "Obviously he has never had sex" LOL

[anfield5]

He's very dry in his humour which is perhaps why Brits get him and German's not so much lol. He has a lot of fans here by all accounts. I remember he did a piece at the British GP a few years ago where he admitted he loves British comedy and the less said about German comedy the better.

He is an avid Monty Python fan, and loves to do impersonate people (he did and aweful Nigel Mansell on Top Gear)

[Tazio]

I don't always appreciate Seb's humor, but I give him full marks for the effort. Regardless of where you think he falls in the talent dept, with his WDC's history will be very kind to him, and he has the luxury of (historically) feeling like he doesn't have anything left to prove. I can see why he gets on so well with Kimi. I also think that most these guys really are pretty cool in an egoed out kind of way. Who can blame them for the latter. I think Nico is a bit of an enigma, he is good enough in a great car to win a championship, but I still rate him slightly below Jense in terms of career performance. The part that bums me out is; I've always liked Nico, and he is obviously feeling a lot of pressure, because as I said earlier he should have let it go after the comments made in the after race press conference. Instead he acted a little like a poop butt and had to get the last word on a guy that was just making a wise crack. That is what was a little disappointing to me

[kfzmeister]

Hamilton "Winning a race feels better than sex"

Kimi "Maybe he never had sex" LOL

Fixed it for ya.
Besides, not sure that SEB is that experienced either (yes, i do know he just became a father)

[jens]

I can only imagine how Alonso is feeling having taken that risk and jumped ship. I'm still expecting a big controversy involving him this year.

Alonso is looking at the fine details of get-out clauses in his contract as we speak.

Already last year there were discussions that Alonso doesn't want to commit long-term and wants to keep his options open for 2016. That's why signing the deal took time.

But now, where could Alonso go, especially if Mercedes keeps Hamilton-Rosberg line-up, which I guess they are likely to do.

Maybe it is slightly early to discuss right now as Alonso is recovering from injury, but it could possibly be the first silly season topic.

[Doc Austin]

Alonso bailed on Ferrari right as they were turning it around, which should be a good lesson from him in patience. I kind of doubt he is looking for a way out before he even races the McLaren.

Yeah, the Honda sucks, but that's just for right now. Imagine Alonso jumps and Honda gains the kind of performance they had in the 90s. Right now Alonso looks merely silly, but if he walked away from a Honda that later becomes dominant, well, that would look worse than silly, wouldn't it?

[jens]

Well, the game of career poker is a challenging game and quite a few drivers in the history can attest they played the cards wrong.

There is also the matter of whether Alonso really believed that McLaren-Honda would bring him goods in 2015, or it was just an uncomfortable move out of necessity, because he had no other options.

I tend to be in the latter camp. Alonso may be a great driver, but he is not so valuable that teams would go out of their way to get him on board. As it was, he fell out with the new management of Ferrari and basically had little choice but to leave (like in McLaren in 2007) and neither Mercedes nor Red Bull were prepared/interested in making room for him.

So, McLaren-Honda was the last sensible F1 refugee camp he could go to. I don't know, what are his contract terms, but I do think he and his manager have done their best to get some performance clauses in. It looks like McLaren is pretty unlikely to match any performance clauses Alonso might have in the contract, which means he would look around again if there is a better place for him to go.

[Tazio]

Yeah, the Honda sucks, but that's just for right now. Imagine Alonso jumps and Honda gains the kind of performance they had in the 90s. Right now Alonso looks merely silly, but if he walked away from a Honda that later becomes dominant, well, that would look worse than silly, wouldn't it?

I think Fred and Jense know, what Honda/zMcLaren strategy has to be in the not so long term! I mean Honda's strategy is obviously (due to the nature of the reg's) the only one viable strategy, to develop a PU with the energy of Mercedes, and maybe if McLaren have a chassis that once they get up to speed, will have a really great conering, sticky, annnnnnnd slippery challenger.
I'm assuming that's exactly what they've done because of the regs; instead of building a solid engine and then adding performance (which would be token limited), they've presumably gone for the most powerful, radical engine they could, knowing they can update for reliability reasons without penalty or limit.

They just really need to get a handle on it, because even if that is right, right now all they seem to be able to do is creep around the track (if it's even running) until they can integrate their ancillary systems and take advantage of their aero

By the way, I doubt if Fred or Jense feel silly, maybe some of their fans do, but who cares. If anything I think (if he is fit which he is) he will get a little mad or disappointed, same with Jense. The problem is that most members on this forum don't get it. These guys are both very good at being patient yet being sensible to not exceed limits while getting the most out of what they are given. Both are very cagy veterans, (best driver combination in the freakin' field, and you can take that to the bank) that should not be discounted. I say Fred (and Jense) feel challenged