It may end up as the season excuse!

[ioan]

So FA blames a lighting pod that fell from the ceiling of the garage on his car, Friday night, for his poor showing on last Sunday.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2072100,00.html

Maybe his mechanics won't be happy with him thinking that they can't assemble a front wing.

[ArrowsFA1]

Never one to miss a chance are you :dozey:

What Alonso said is: "Maybe a mistake was made while re-assembling the car after that mishap. The fact is the car had a strange behaviour from then on."

When you're looking for reasons for an unexplained drop-off in performance the team and driver look at every possible reason, one of which might have been damage to the car caused by the overhead lighting pod.

[Ed]

they mention sumit bout this on itv1 didnt they

[ArrowsFA1]

Yup :up:

[wedge]

F1 cars are sensitive pieces of carbon fibre. No two cars or a set of tyres are the same.

The drivers can sense these sort of things.

The T-car with the exact same set-up can feel different to the race car or a set of sticker tyres with the exact same pressure can feel different to the previous set of sticker tyres.

Then again, Alonso looking for an excuse!!!

[ioan]

Never one to miss a chance are you :dozey:

What Alonso said is: "Maybe a mistake was made while re-assembling the car after that mishap. The fact is the car had a strange behaviour from then on."

When you're looking for reasons for an unexplained drop-off in performance the team and driver look at every possible reason, one of which might have been damage to the car caused by the overhead lighting pod.

Team and driver do look at it in every other team, but hardly any other comes up hinting that his mechanics did a bad job!

And why should I miss any chances I get? :rolleyes:

BTW Maybe doesn't mean that he doesn't believe they made a mistake. What a team player. Next time around he will say that the team are sabotaging his car overnight just to favor Hamilton, after he has a history of throwing the toys out of the pram and pointing the finger to his team.

[ioan]

F1 cars are sensitive pieces of carbon fibre. No two cars or a set of tyres are the same.

The drivers can sense these sort of things.

The T-car with the exact same set-up can feel different to the race car or a set of sticker tyres with the exact same pressure can feel different to the previous set of sticker tyres.


You are right about the differences, but for the sensitive part I can't agree.

Take for example Alonso's McLaren front wing assembly. Those parts are under huge pressures when running at over 300kmh and still they perform pretty constantly lap after lap (unless they brake, but that is about design faults).

Anyway the front wing assembly was rebuilt so the only thing to do was to set it up right again, but normally they can do it copying the settings of the old assembly.

[Roamy]

I would imagine it is hard to get the setting back to perfect if you don't have enough testing time to perfect the car. Much the case with the backmarker cars.. It is a shame because F1 should have basically unlimited running on Fri and Sat morning for F1. With about 2 hrs going to support races if they have any. Also this would be excellent for the fans and create a substantial increase in attendance for both days. F1 has really screwed up their own show. I guess Mosely and Bernie have be watching too much WWF.

[Big Ben]

Ioan strikes again... But what can be said when talking to the owner of the absolute truth while the rest of us have simple POV (as he suggested on another thread)

Actually I have an explanation for you.... Alonso is nothing but a pathetic looser... he s worthless and he should be happy with the 5th place because even that was a bit over his skills.

[ioan]

Ioan strikes again... But what can be said when talking to the owner of the absolute truth while the rest of us have simple POV (as he suggested on another thread)

Actually I have an explanation for you.... Alonso is nothing but a pathetic looser... he s worthless and he should be happy with the 5th place because even that was a bit over his skills.

Than why do you bother replying about a loser to a forum member you clearly don't like? :rolleyes:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I'd say that the garage ceiling falling onto the car was quite a good excuse :uhoh:

[tintop]

Clearly Alonso was off the pace in Bahrain, there is no reason to believe that there wasn't something wrong with his car. He matched or bested Hamilton's pace in the 1st two races, perhaps Hamilton has improved a little bit, but I suspect it's more about Alonso's car than anything else (he's also pretty good at the track having won the last 2 races there).

If the frame was tweaked even slightly by a blow like that there could definitely be handling consequences, it's not that complicated. The fact that grumpy Denis denied it is meaningless IMO.

[trumperZ06]

:p : "ARWWWK... ARWWWK...

The Sky is Falling"

so said Chicken Little !!!

In other words... a much to do... about nothing !!!

IMO... The McLaren mechanics would make it right, before the car went on grid.

Front end units have been replaced many times during the race... due to damage.

The mechanics are certainly experienced in this opperation.

[tintop]

:p : "ARWWWK... ARWWWK...

The Sky is Falling"

so said Chicken Little !!!

In other words... a much to do... about nothing !!!

IMO... The McLaren mechanics would make it right, before the car went on grid.

Front end units have been replaced many times during the race... due to damage.

The mechanics are certainly experienced in this opperation.

I guess we'll see if it was a one off (chassis issue) or a trend (Hamilton better than Alonso) over the next few races.

[truefan72]

I'm sorry folks, I've got to agree with Ion here.

As far as excuses go, that is a pretty lame excuse, not to mention calling out your mechanics. That will do him no favors in the McClaren paddock.

How about the fact that he just was slower this weekend. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you just can't match your teamate's pace, or the other 4 guys ahead of you. Massa and Hamilton were 1-2 all weekend. It would have been better and more classy to simply admit being outperfored that week and that he'll "bring it" in his home GP.

[Donney]

He did that after the race. He said: I simply wasn't fast enough.

[Ian McC]

:dozey:

Seems like maybe means yes around here :rolleyes:

[Ian McC]

Actually I have an explanation for you.... Alonso is nothing but a pathetic looser... he s worthless and he should be happy with the 5th place because even that was a bit over his skills.

Right, that's a two times WDC champion you are talking about :rolleyes:

[Big Ben]

Than why do you bother replying about a loser to a forum member you clearly don't like? :rolleyes:

I m an optimist... I still have hopes for you.

Alonso was perhaps the most consistent driver of the last 2 seasons. How would you explain that poor performance if not car problems???

It's obvious you hate the guy.... how about the season stupid thread?

[truefan72]

I m an optimist... I still have hopes for you.

Alonso was perhaps the most consistent driver of the last 2 seasons. How would you explain that poor performance if not car problems???

It's obvious you hate the guy.... how about the season stupid thread?

EU

waaaay outta line here. take your personal; gripes to the PM's please.
Alonso is a two time back-back WDC and blew away the competition the previous week. I'm not even a particular fan of his, but I have to respect his craftsmanship and success. like my sig says...

unless you were being sarcastic towards Ion.

[ioan]

Alonso was perhaps the most consistent driver of the last 2 seasons. How would you explain that poor performance if not car problems???

Maybe that was the best of the Alonso+car package and Hamilton is simply better.


It's obvious you hate the guy....

Why should I hate him?
I only dislike his behavior off the track.


how about the season stupid thread?

You might start it if you wish, I have better things to do! :D

[tinchote]

When you're looking for reasons for an unexplained drop-off in performance the team and driver look at every possible reason, one of which might have been damage to the car caused by the overhead lighting pod.

Yeah, and he also shows as "proof" that his car behaved the same with both types of tyres. Interestingly enough, LH's car was also quick with the hard tyres.

[Zico]

I've only recently starting posting on the F1 forum fairly recently usually its the WRC section where we have only one person who hates a driver (Loeb) because of his allegience to Ford.. but here? The bitching/sniping from driver/ manufacturer allegiences is unbelievable but quite amusing. Its amazing how a little comment can grow arms and legs... right out of proportion due to both media scrutiny and rival fans ;) Be best if they said nothing to avoid being accused of making excuses.

Im with ArrowsF1 on this one.. Alonso did say he didnt have the pace post race.. The logical step afterwards is to explore all avenues to try and find out why.

[DimitraF1]

when you are outpaced by all the front runners then you are looking for some excuses..next time alonso will tell us that hamilton is just a lucky guy!! or not?

[janneppi]

I've only recently starting posting on the F1 forum fairly recently usually its the WRC section where we have only one person who hates a driver (Loeb) because of his allegience to Ford.. but here? The bitching/sniping from driver/ manufacturer allegiences is unbelievable but quite amusing. Its amazing how a little comment can grow arms and legs... right out of proportion due to both media scrutiny and rival fans ;) Be best if they said nothing to avoid being accused of making excuses.



Don't worry about too much, i wondered the same thing years ago and look at me now, 'm hurling insults left and right if people so much as make honest spelling error writing either Kimmi Raekonnen or the other guy. ;)

You'll soon pick up. :)

[ioan]

Im with ArrowsF1 on this one.. Alonso did say he didnt have the pace post race.. The logical step afterwards is to explore all avenues to try and find out why.

Nothing wrong doing that, but the excuse is lame!

[ShiftingGears]

Well if thats the best this season has, it isn't gonna top last years season excuse - Schumachers at Monaco qualifying.

[CarlMetro]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the lighting pod incident happened on Friday night? So between then and Sunday we had a 1 hour practice session and a 1 hour qualifying session? During both sessions both the team and the driver were perfectly within their rights to change the set-up of the car.

Even if the wing had been re-assembled wrong, which I doubt very much, the simple solution would be to replace the wing assembly completely with another one. Did they try this? Because there is no mention of such anywhere. If Alonso thought that there might be a problem with the front wing assembly, surely someone as good and with as much experience as he has would have discovered this very early on on Saturday morning? If a couple of tweaks on it made no difference then his next move would have been to change the wing completely. Rather strangely, he fails to mention anything at all about poor handling in the post-qualifying interview........

Fernando Alonso, McLaren (4th, 1m 33.192 s):
“Second row was the best we could do today but we should be in a good position to fight for a podium finish. This track provides plenty of opportunities for overtaking which means that you can really fight for positions and give the spectators a nice race. We are fighting with the Ferrari's and that’s more or less what we expected. They are both on the clean side of the track which might give them a slight advantage at the start. However our aim is to go for it. So far we have been strong in our long runs so I’m optimistic for a competitive race tomorrow.”

nor in the post-race interview............

Fernando Alonso, McLaren (5th):
“In a way I feel happy as we came away with four points and still leading the championship which is what is important. This was not a great race for me but these things happen. I was struggling for pace and overall grip which means that you can’t drive the car as well as you would like. You always start the race believing you can win but after six or seven laps I knew that it would be tough. I couldn’t keep up with the Ferrari's and Lewis (Hamilton) and in the end had to settle for fifth. I was close to Heidfeld in the end but there was nothing I could do. We now look forward to the next couple of weeks where we will all work hard to further improve the car in time for my home Grand Prix in Barcelona.”

Just a mention that he was struggling for grip. Now, when he's had a bit of time to think of an excuse, he comes up with this one :\