What's up with Fred?

[Tazio]

"Fredi is in super shape. We had dinner with him and Luis (Garcia Abad) at Cipriani London,” said Briatore.
http://www.f1technical.net/news/1997...3233d922e7299b

[A FONDO]

[Tazio]

Pressure set to mount on McLaren Honda as Alonso prepares for entrance McLaren Mercedes
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Posted By: James Allen | 22 Mar 2015 | 10:14 pm GMT | 3 comments
Reports in Spain suggest that Fernando Alonso has passed the medical tests he underwent today in Cambridge, England following his concussion in a testing accident and he is preparing to travel to Malaysia to make his McLaren Honda entrance in next weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard, 33, will have to prove to FIA doctors and technical staff prior to first practice, that he is able to get out of the cockpit of the car within five seconds, which should be a formality.
If confirmed, it will put the pressure onto Honda and McLaren, which has started the season in uncompetitive fashion, with a long road ahead on both reliability and performance.
Jenson Button and Alonso stand-in Kevin Magnussen soldiered through the Melbourne weekend with quiet stoicism, but with no disrespect to them, the presence of Alonso in a comprised car and engine package will ramp up the pressure, particularly on Honda, which was so keen to get him on board to lead their F1 challenge.
The engine had to be turned down to get mileage in the opening race, with Button registering 288km/h through the speed trap, 14km/h down on the Mercedes cars and 21km/h down on the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.

Alonso knows the shortcomings of the package, having tested it pre-season and will be aware of the timetables and targets for the programme.
But for Honda in particular, it will be stressful having a two time world champion like Alonso being seen to struggle to get out of the Q3 qualifying session. They hired him to drive them on to get results, that’s how they operate and what they expect for their very large cheque. Consequently, expectations are automatically raised the moment he climbs into the car and therefore so is the profile of the situation and the consequent embarrassment for the team.
These are hard yards, which the management hope will be travelled as quickly as possible, so that they can return to being protagonists again.
“I expect the team to be competitive by the end of the season,” McLaren race director Eric Boullier told us. “We have targeted some power, torque and energy recovery targets. We know today that it is working, so it’s just a question of time.
“The biggest challenge for Honda to catch up is not having started a year after (the other manufacturers). it is having taken the decision (to enter) one and a half years ago.”
Equally it will be a testing weekend for Alonso. He will be fielding questions about the circumstances surrounding his accident, about which he has remained silent so far. But he will also be confronted with a resurgent Ferrari team, with every chance of being lapped at least once during the race by a scarlet car. Team principal Maurizio Arrivavene saying this weekend that the team can have confidence that it has taken a significant step and that it can target Mercedes,
“Our objective was Williams and Red Bull, but now we must be a little more convinced about our chances of reducing the gap to Mercedes,” he said. ” It’s just a question of continuing like this, with the right methodology.”

Welcome back mate!

[Tazio]

I wonder if they will let him bring his skateboard, and comic books?

[Hawkmoon]

I always thought 2015 would be a stop-gap year for Alonso with him on his way to Mercedes in 2016. I have no idea if that will prove correct but if Alonso doesn't have a performance related 'out' in his McLaren contract I'd be very surprised.

[Doc Austin]

From Tazio's link:

But for Honda in particular, it will be stressful having a two time world champion like Alonso being seen to struggle to get out of the Q3 qualifying session.

Imagine how embarrassing it must have been to see former world champion Button puttering around in a completely hopeless last place. The only way it could have been worse is if both cars started the race and then there would have been two Hondas fighting over a hopeless last place! I'de imagine if Manor makes it to Maylasia that McLaren will have a race on their hands, if they are even that good.

The Japanese, however, have a different mindset than we do. They are willing to be patient and work hard for results well past after Westerners have given up. Check Honda in Indycar and Toyota in WSC. Honda's Indycar program was embarrassing maybe even moreso than the current McLaren programme, while Toyota really should have won at least one, and maybe two Lemans by now.

Honda is going to get it right eventually, but by then Button will probably be retired and Fred will probably be past it, or will have moved on to somewhere like Renault (if they buy Torro Rosso).

[Robinho]

Hopefully now Manor will run and I think that of they can turn the Honda up to anywhere near full power, at least in qualifying, they'll be fighting the Force India's, Torro Rosso's and maybe Red Bull. It seems the McLaren is essentially a decent chassis and they could be up to 200hp down in Melbourne configuration. I don't expect that to be the same for long

[N4D13]

I think people here are being way too quick to dismiss Macca. Yes, they were nowhere in Australia as they were behind schedule with their engine - but I'm confident they will improve a lot soon. I would be very surprised if they weren't able to fight for points in Bahrain or Spain.

[journeyman racer]

Filthy he didn't turn up to Australia, and I'll have to wait another 12 months to see him.

[Tazio]

Fred's starting to remember (or admit) that he had a problem with the steering before the crash!

“While there was nothing evident in the extensive car telemetry data, nor anything abnormal in the subsequent reconstructions and laboratory tests, Fernando recalls a sense of ‘heavy’ steering prior to the accident,” read a McLaren statement, released on Monday.“Consequently, the team has fitted an additional sensor to the car, to increase our data capture.

Probably his own silly mistake!