Formula One 2015 (and beyond)
Posted by J i m
His most recent Tweet(about half an hour ago) seems to say that MoviStarTV will be reviewing Alonso's year tonight, and that it's a good time for them to be doing it because tomorrow his signing by McLaren will be announced.
Bit of a shame they went for the conservative option. With a smaller grid, we need as many talented young drivers as possible. But presumably, Vandoorne will be in for 2016, and Magnussen now has the chance to follow the path of Glock and Grosjean and head back to other formulae before attempting to crack back into F1.
And Jan still has the bragging rights for most F1 starts in the family at least for now
X (@ed24f1)
And Jan still has the bragging rights for most F1 starts in the family at least for now
X (@ed24f1)
So a bit of inside information here.
The only official reaction, outside of the press conference, to today's unveiling of the 2015 driver line up was this:
In an interview to the Danish F1 broadcaster, he explained some of the things that have been going on behind the scenes. According to KM, he suffered under the pressure inside the team. Already from the middle of the season, he knew about another contract being signed, so he also knew he was fighting Jenson for the 2nd seat. According to him, that hampered him from showing his true skills and potential, and he wishes that he could have done otherwise. He was not able to ignore the pressure inside the team and deliver consistency, which he reckons he could have done without the stress. He also says that he will be back for '16, if not with McLaren, then with another team. Prompted on if he had been promised anything as compensation for the lack of the 2nd seat, he answered no. Prompted on the content of the contract, he said he has not seen it, and it has not been signed. It is still being written.
Now, given the fact that both JB and FA are under multi-year contracts, this does signal the beginning of the end of the Macca relationship.
According to his manager, the signing of Jenson was a very big surprise, given the communication they had with McLaren. Rumours are abound that Honda have offered a seat in Japan Super GT, but this has not been discussed. No other options than the 2nd seat have been discussed. KM and his manager were informed of the decision about a day in advance of the press conference. This means that Macca only told KM when they knew they had the deal with JB (my interpretation). This turn of events is disappointing, because they did reject negotiations with other top teams earlier in the season, based on the promising communication with McLaren. Given that Ferrari was set on SV and had a contract for KR, and Mercedes are happy with their line-up, I reckon she means that they had negotiations with Williams (my interpretation) - I see no other options given the way she coined it. I realize that this, due to the way the internet works, with the lack of tonality and subtext, can be construed as a treachery theme, but that was not how it was said. It was more like disappointment with the outcome, when in fact there were other very good options, that could have led to a '15 race seat. She said that getting KM secured in F1 had been a 7 year push (I told you he wasn't the choice of Whitmarsh, but of RD), but she reckoned that this year ('15) would prove to be the one with the hardest and most amount of work.
Also, it is said, that Alonso has strict stipulations in his contract, that he does NOT have to interact with RD, unless it is absolutely necessary. Kiesa commented on that, and he said in the three years the lived along side each other, KR would simply delete all emails from RD. And this is a verbose retelling "Even when Kimi came from the back of the grid and won the GP, he would get criticism from Ron about how had made a mistake on lap 23, and that he could have won with an even greater margin, if he had mustered sufficient focus on the task at hand." As Kiesa summed up, if even Kimi, with his renowed ability to take nothing in, has problems dealing with RD, to the point of exclaiming "how dare you talk to me like that!", then there is probably reason to believe that FA has those clauses.
Also rather remarkable, during the press conference, KM was trending in the general London area on Twitter, ranking 4th, with McLaren 2nd, and JB and FA no where to be seen on the chart. I have no idea what that means. I would have guessed JB would be topping the charts.
It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2014 06:00PM by Morbid.
The only official reaction, outside of the press conference, to today's unveiling of the 2015 driver line up was this:
In an interview to the Danish F1 broadcaster, he explained some of the things that have been going on behind the scenes. According to KM, he suffered under the pressure inside the team. Already from the middle of the season, he knew about another contract being signed, so he also knew he was fighting Jenson for the 2nd seat. According to him, that hampered him from showing his true skills and potential, and he wishes that he could have done otherwise. He was not able to ignore the pressure inside the team and deliver consistency, which he reckons he could have done without the stress. He also says that he will be back for '16, if not with McLaren, then with another team. Prompted on if he had been promised anything as compensation for the lack of the 2nd seat, he answered no. Prompted on the content of the contract, he said he has not seen it, and it has not been signed. It is still being written.
Now, given the fact that both JB and FA are under multi-year contracts, this does signal the beginning of the end of the Macca relationship.
According to his manager, the signing of Jenson was a very big surprise, given the communication they had with McLaren. Rumours are abound that Honda have offered a seat in Japan Super GT, but this has not been discussed. No other options than the 2nd seat have been discussed. KM and his manager were informed of the decision about a day in advance of the press conference. This means that Macca only told KM when they knew they had the deal with JB (my interpretation). This turn of events is disappointing, because they did reject negotiations with other top teams earlier in the season, based on the promising communication with McLaren. Given that Ferrari was set on SV and had a contract for KR, and Mercedes are happy with their line-up, I reckon she means that they had negotiations with Williams (my interpretation) - I see no other options given the way she coined it. I realize that this, due to the way the internet works, with the lack of tonality and subtext, can be construed as a treachery theme, but that was not how it was said. It was more like disappointment with the outcome, when in fact there were other very good options, that could have led to a '15 race seat. She said that getting KM secured in F1 had been a 7 year push (I told you he wasn't the choice of Whitmarsh, but of RD), but she reckoned that this year ('15) would prove to be the one with the hardest and most amount of work.
Also, it is said, that Alonso has strict stipulations in his contract, that he does NOT have to interact with RD, unless it is absolutely necessary. Kiesa commented on that, and he said in the three years the lived along side each other, KR would simply delete all emails from RD. And this is a verbose retelling "Even when Kimi came from the back of the grid and won the GP, he would get criticism from Ron about how had made a mistake on lap 23, and that he could have won with an even greater margin, if he had mustered sufficient focus on the task at hand." As Kiesa summed up, if even Kimi, with his renowed ability to take nothing in, has problems dealing with RD, to the point of exclaiming "how dare you talk to me like that!", then there is probably reason to believe that FA has those clauses.
Also rather remarkable, during the press conference, KM was trending in the general London area on Twitter, ranking 4th, with McLaren 2nd, and JB and FA no where to be seen on the chart. I have no idea what that means. I would have guessed JB would be topping the charts.
It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2014 06:00PM by Morbid.
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