Will SchM succeed in his comeback?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Garry Walker

As for going with team strategy, the strategy they picked at Singapore was so unbeliveably idiotic that no one sane would accept that as the best strategy. Yet Alonso went with it.

---

I completely disagree, Alonso's strategy in Singapore made perfect sense if (and only if) he had been told that there would be a safety car the lap he came in for a ridiculously early pitstop.

In other words unless he'd dropped several million IQ points that day he was in on the Piquet job. He's about the only guy in the team aside from his engineer that would have needed to know about it in order to go along with the pitstop strategy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ratonmacias

if you read Jo Ramirez´s book he states clearly that Ron Dennis likes to have a driver he loves as if it were his kid and that the last ones were Senna, Hakkinen and Raikkonen its an old book 2005 or 2006 so lewis isnt mentioned. he also states that honda started clearly favoring Senna giving him the updates first and at some points senna had 30 or so honda guys while prost had 10 to 12

---

Regarding Prost and Senna, I believe its no secret that McLaren valued both equally but Honda were utterly in love with Senna. It says a lot that Senna was rung up by Mr Honda himself the day their board decided to pull out of F1, Ron Dennis was told three months later.

Getting out of sequence on a new road course, the first night-race as well, when you are starting at the back of the grid in a fast car (Alonso was on for a top three qualifying until his gearbox went awol) is not as stupid as some would like to believe.

In fact, the only 'idiotic' thing about the strategy is the people who don't understand strategy and claim it was an idiotic strategy.

Roger Penske and Tim Cindric were always willing to play the off-sequence pit strategy in CART, ChampCar and IndyCar.

Selling an unusual strategy to Fernando on the Saturday night/Sunday morning of the Singapore GP would not have been too difficult. A normal strategy was going to do feck all for him anyway.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tamburello

Getting out of sequence on a new road course, the first night-race as well, when you are starting at the back of the grid in a fast car (Alonso was on for a top three qualifying until his gearbox went awol) is not as stupid as some would like to believe.

In fact, the only 'idiotic' thing about the strategy is the people who don't understand strategy and claim it was an idiotic strategy.

Roger Penske and Tim Cindric were always willing to play the off-sequence pit strategy in CART, ChampCar and IndyCar.

Selling an unusual strategy to Fernando on the Saturday night/Sunday morning of the Singapore GP would not have been too difficult. A normal strategy was going to do feck all for him anyway.

---

Yet it is convention that on a track where overtaking was clearly going to be difficult if not impossible, a fast car stuck unnaturally far back would benefit more by being fuelled to the brim and pitting as late as possible.

Even by the standards of short fuelling Alonso was ridiculously short fuelled, there HAD to be a safety car in order for him to not end up being at the back of the pack when the pitstops all sorted themselves out, how convenient that Piquet happened to go out the lap Alonso went in.... How interesting that the investigation of the whole incident didn't want to explore exactly why car number 1 in that team decided to go with that particular strategy....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dylan H

Yet it is convention that on a track where overtaking was clearly going to be difficult if not impossible, a fast car stuck unnaturally far back would benefit more by being fuelled to the brim and pitting as late as possible.

---

No it wouldn't, as it would be stuck behind slower cars and unable to pass because of its higher fuel load, negating any speed advantage.

At best, Alonso could have hoped for an 8th place with that kind of strategy.

Short-fuelled would mean that the car would be in clean air and no traffic but still on the lead lap, a technique often employed in IndyCar.

It would always need a safety car for the strategy to work, but the chances of a safety car were higher than normal given that it was a street circuit, a night race and a new track.

To that extent, it was a plausible strategy to a driver whose weekend had otherwise just gone down the pan.

That Renault, or rather Flavio, Pat and Piquet, were planning on creating a safety car situation does not mean that it was an implausible strategy without knowledge of the plan.

That's a fair point I suppose but is stretching it a little to think there wasn't a nudge and a wink as well.

"Trust me Alonso, I've checked my Horoscope and it says we will have a safety car around lap 14".

I guess it's all supposition and these things tend to stay buried but the jury is out on exactly what was known to Alonso. All we do know is that one driver and the top top people in the team were rotten cheats of the worse order. At the moment though, we must give Senor Alonso the benefit of the doubt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by henners88

I'd love to know what you think you see when you watch a grand prix. Its almost as though the last 3 years do not exist. Alonso has not shown the superiority over the likes of Vettel and particularly Hamilton to which you claim here.

---

As much as it pains me I have to agree with this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Saint Devote

He has not?

His victory at Suzuka in 2008 was a masterpiece.

---

what victory in suzuka?

they were racing in Fuji in 2008 and Alonso was far from spectacular in that race. taking advantage of a first lap fracas that saw the 3 cars who qualified ahead of him involved and then driving an unspectacular race.
hardly a legendary race imo

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by henners88

Alonso is an awesome driver and being a triple WDC he deserves alot of respect, but he is not Jesus Christ. :)

---

Either you can't count or he is indeed a miracle worker.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by henners88

I totally agree and its a credit that they are where they are with limited resources compared with the top 3 teams. Mercedes spent hundreds of millions building facilities at Woking and it took a couple of years before this investment started having an advantage on the team. Brawn collaborated with Merc fairly late last year, so I get the impression the development up until November had been done on a fraction of the budget of say Ferrari and Mclaren.

Schuey has come back and will be an asset as far as input in developing this seasons car, but we may not see the rewards until late into this season. Nobody really expects Schuey to win the championship in his return season, but with so much media hype, I feel this season will be used to get back into the groove, and I just hope he sticks around for a second season. Never in his career has he committed to a 3 year contract, and many feel its just his way of diverting attention later in the year when contracts are the subject on every journalists lips. Fingers crossed he'll be around until he is 44.. :)

---

i think Mercedes will invest wisely in the team and I expect an accelerated pace of improvement. over the year. They might not be challenging for the WDC this year but they might be in the hunt for a top 3 WCC and in 2011 with a year of Mercedes control and input, I fully expect that car to be very very competitive.

I still think it will win 1 or 2 races this year of which I think MSC will win one and Nico the other.