Magny Cours Grand Prix ***SPOILERS***

Actually it surprise me than anyone has been critical of Alonso this year.

Realistically, his car is only ever good enough for 7th or 8th positions (most of his good qualifying performances have been with lighter fuel loads), so he's really doing everything he can in the car.

At Montreal he just made a silly mistake - he had nothing to lose as he can't compete for the championship so he saw an opportunity to push for a better than expected result. Doing that means you run the risk of making a mistake - but at least he's trying.

He finish 8th at Magny only becasue he got unsighted by a lapped car and let Piquet through - no big deal as the team still finished on the same positions.

I think people don't think that Alonso is doing that great because they are assuming that his teammate (Piquet) is crap. This isn't the case - the car still makes the biggest difference to the perceived talent of the driver.

Piquet was a strong competitor for Hamilton in the lower classes - the only reason he hasn't done so well so far this year is because all new drivers seem to struggle if they are put into mid-pack cars - Heikki had the same problem last year too, whereas Hamilton did a great job because he was in a front running car.

No-one thought Massa was any good either until he got into a front running car.

I honestly think more than half the field can win if they were driving a Ferrari or McLaren.

bender Wrote:
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> Actually it surprise me than anyone has been
> critical of Alonso this year.
>
> Realistically, his car is only ever good enough
> for 7th or 8th positions (most of his good
> qualifying performances have been with lighter
> fuel loads), so he's really doing everything he
> can in the car.

I don't think any have been criticising him, other than the more idiotic of the English press. I've been vocal on more than a couple of occasions in saying how good he's been performing, especially given the lack of reward he must feel.

As far as I'm concerned he's had 1 poor race this season.

Alonso has been ok but he has made lot's of mistakes in almost every race.

For me I think that Alonso is doing fine. In that car he is allowed to do mistakes trying to have a higher position than he can in the race. He is a two times world champion and he isnt in the title battle this year, so not really a problem for him - nothing to lose for trying.

The only big error I saw from him was Canada.

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the renault is terrible this year, behind red bull and toyota, but alonso has regularly been able to mix it with these teams, so i think he is doing a good job. of course, he has to push extremely hard to get everything out of his car, so it could be expected that he would make some mistakes

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X (@ed24f1)

vesuvius Wrote:
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> Alonso has been ok but he has made lot's of
> mistakes in almost every race.


All the drivers have made lots of small mistakes in almost every race race other than perhaps Robert Kubica IMO. As Bruno pointed out his only big mistake was in Canada.

Fernando has been working miracles to get the car as competitive as it has been in qualifying this season but the same cannot be done under race conditions no matter how hard he tries. Some over-driving and some poor tactical decisions have lost him some solid points but the reality is that the R28 is not podium material.

I think it's a massive credit to him for even attempting to do what he's doing. He's a 2-times world champion that's not got a car capable of a podium, or even a top 5, he's driving his nuts off all the time, he's got no hope of a win this season, he's highly unlikely to even be in the team next year, yet he's still giving absolutely everything. It's bloody refreshing if you ask me.

Watching him at France was awesome, the car constantly looked like it was going spear of the track!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I didnt like him last year, but I respect him much more for getting on with it at Renault. He'll go up even further in my estimation if he doesn't go for Ferrari but builds with Renault.

yes, next year renault have a great chance to move up the pecking order with the new regulations, so he should stay with renault at least in 2009. as well as this, kimi might retire after 2009, so alonso would have another option

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X (@ed24f1)

gav Wrote:
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> I think it's a massive credit to him for even
> attempting to do what he's doing. He's a 2-times
> world champion that's not got a car capable of a
> podium, or even a top 5, he's driving his nuts off
> all the time, he's got no hope of a win this
> season, he's highly unlikely to even be in the
> team next year, yet he's still giving absolutely
> everything. It's bloody refreshing if you ask me.


and if you ask from me , he hasn't done anything special this year...only what I have expected him to do nothing more nothing less

marcl Wrote:
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> In Autosport this week there are quite alot of
> people not saying good things about alonso and his
> resent races.

mmm.. Autosport is generally not a good source where to find good comments about Alonso.

It is a very dificult season for him. The car is, in the best of the cases, the 4th car of the grid (and generally the 5th or 6th, behind Toyota and Red Bull). And when comparing to Piquet, the difference has been so big than most of the people points that to how bad Piquet is instead of pointing that Alonso is very good (honestly, I would love to see Hamilton in the R28). But Piquet is not that bad neither, his debut is in a mid-field car without any driving aids (Lewis is not doing it that good neither).

Alonso has had a couple of bad races, but not because of him mainly but because of poor strategies. I'm not saying that he hasn't the fault, but the result could have been much better with good strategies. Anyway, things went in that way and the gamble didn't paid off.