Alonso to leave Ferrari?

[Teppic]

LiamM45 said:

I think it's only a matter of time before the VAG group get involved in F1.

I believe the discussion, a mere three or four years ago, went something like this:

VAG: "Hey, FIA. If you change the F1 engine regs to 1.6 litre turbo's, we'll come and play"
FIA: "OK, we'll consider it."
Existing F1 teams: "fksake! We're supposed to be saving money, not wasting it!"

Some time later...

FIA: "OK, we've done as you agreed. It's in the regulations. It's a straight-four 1.6 litre turbo engine from 2013 onwards."
VAG: "Seriously? I can't believe you actually believed us! We have had no intention of joining F1 whatsoever, and we've now successfully arranged it that some of our competitors now have to spend hundreds of millions on developing a new F1 engine, just because you thought we'd sign up. Suckers!"
FIA: "st! Hey, existing F1 teams. How about we delay it for a year and make it a V6? It'll still e a 1.6 litre turbo, though."
Existing F1 teams: "Well, it's slightly better, but it's still costing us hundreds of millions to do it. What about all this cost saving you keep asking us to do?"
FIA: "Tough! What we say, goes".

[rubystone]

Justaredbadge said:

I'll stand my ground on Ferrari and argue that as soon as the arches got wider on 911s they lost the classes of the 1964

Why 1967 for Ferraris?

On 911s the arches widened only on the RS. On the earlier 911s the chassis behaviour of the cars was unacceptable.

[P-Jay]

Nope I can't see VAG getting into F1 - Porsche, Lambo, Seat, Bentley & Bugatti don't really have any great ties to F1 and I don't think would benefit from the associated image and they prefer to spunk their massive R&D money into endurance racing and Halo loss-leading cars.

It seems to me for mainstream motor manufacturers F1 was the first thing they dropped when things got tough and will be the last thing they go into if things improve .

[CraigyMc]

mollytherocker said:

paolow said:

Lets face it - at the moment there are 3/4 championship contenders - Lewis, Finger, Alonso and Kimi - if you don't have one of those you won't win ....

Really? This is a fact?

The last person to win a world championship before "finger" isn't even on your list, which shows the "quality" of it.

[rubystone]

CraigyMc said:

The last person to win a world championship before "finger" isn't even on your list, which shows the "quality" of it.

Nope, Button found himself in the perfect storm.

[mollytherocker]

rubystone said:

Nope, Button found himself in the perfect storm.

And Vettel isnt?

[Efbe]

rubystone said:

Justaredbadge said:

I'll stand my ground on Ferrari and argue that as soon as the arches got wider on 911s they lost the classes of the 1964

Why 1967 for Ferraris?

On 911s the arches widened only on the RS. On the earlier 911s the chassis behaviour of the cars was unacceptable.

christ on a bike. Why the fk are you arguing about this?

Look at my post and try to understand the point of it. It's not difficult.

[vonuber]

Here's a question: which team would want alonso? Does he bring significant for finance with him?
He is getting on a bit, would a team rather have a younger, hungrier racer who is less disruptive to the team dynamic?

[fatbutt]

mollytherocker said:

And Vettel isnt?

And Button won his championship year a lot more convincingly than Lewis did. Last corner, last lap - hardly the domination of a stunning driver everyone would like us to believe. Lewis won his championship through more than a little luck. And all those who say he woulda coulda won so many more, well so could Alonso, or many others.

[paolow]

CraigyMc said:

The last person to win a world championship before "finger" isn't even on your list, which shows the "quality" of it.

Fangio isn't on it either - I did anchor that list in contemporary circumstance. Those drivers make the list as they will have, or will likely have #1 status with a high end team and barring something truly exceptional you need both. If you rate Button that highly I reckon youll be able to find some pretty good odds at the bookies for next season...

[AWRacing]

paolow said:

Fangio isn't on it either - I did anchor that list in contemporary circumstance. Those drivers make the list as they will have, or will likely have #1 status with a high end team and barring something truly exceptional you need both. If you rate Button that highly I reckon youll be able to find some pretty good odds at the bookies for next season...

You think Lewis will have #1 status in the team?!
Cant see that happening when Niko is doing a better job in quali and the race.

[CraigyMc]

paolow said:

CraigyMc said:

The last person to win a world championship before "finger" isn't even on your list, which shows the "quality" of it.

Fangio isn't on it either - I did anchor that list in contemporary circumstance. Those drivers make the list as they will have, or will likely have #1 status with a high end team and barring something truly exceptional you need both. If you rate Button that highly I reckon youll be able to find some pretty good odds at the bookies for next season...

You say your list is "contemporary" when of course Button has won a world championship more recently than Raikkonnen, Alonso, or Hamilton -- so how important is "being contemporary" to you?

Of course it's generally agreed that McLaren produced a bad car this year, but you seem to ignore the fact that they had a highly competitive car last year - they won the same number of races as Redbull and ended the 2012 season with the fastest car of all.
Who is to say whether they'll be at the top or not next year? Do you suppose they have forgotten how to build a competitive F1 car?

McLaren have certainly been open about cutting over their resources to 2014 earlier than any of the main teams: the last time someone did that was when Honda became Brawn and that ended up with a very unexpected result.

Do you suppose Button won't be a #1 driver in a high end team next year? I can't see Perez being #1, and the McLaren team can't seriously be described in any terms other than a top team.

I wouldn't bet on them or against them, but you seem to have made your mind up already.

[anonymous-user]

vonuber said:

Here's a question: which team would want alonso?

According to Whitmarsh, any and all of them.

[RYH64E]

REALIST123 said:

vonuber said:

Here's a question: which team would want alonso?

According to Whitmarsh, any and all of them.

A more relevant question is what team would offer Alonso a better opportunity than Ferrari.

Red Bull - Certainly, but they chose Ricciardo for 2014. The only reason i could see Vettel leaving is if Red Bull drop off the pace, then why would Alonso be interested?
Mercedes - Probably, but they've got a good line up in Hamilton/Rosberg.
Lotus - Probably not, too much instability and not enough money.
McLaren - Maybe, but imo Ferrari are a better bet for 2014 and 2015.
Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams - Almost certainly not, why would he?
Marussia, Caterham - No.

[Henry Fiddleton]

Last I heard Alonso has signed up for WEC.

[P-Jay]

RYH64E said:

REALIST123 said:

vonuber said:

Here's a question: which team would want alonso?

According to Whitmarsh, any and all of them.

A more relevant question is what team would offer Alonso a better opportunity than Ferrari.

Red Bull - Certainly, but they chose Ricciardo for 2014. The only reason i could see Vettel leaving is if Red Bull drop off the pace, then why would Alonso be interested?
Mercedes - Probably, but they've got a good line up in Hamilton/Rosberg.
Lotus - Probably not, too much instability and not enough money.
McLaren - Maybe, but imo Ferrari are a better bet for 2014 and 2015.
Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams - Almost certainly not, why would he?
Marussia, Caterham - No.

Can't argue with that - I think Lotus would give their collective left nuts for Alonso, they've seemed to have secured some decent funding for 2014 in the last few days?

I think McLaren are his best bet if he does indeed want to move, but he's not going to walk out of Ferrari over some personal st or because Kimi has turned up. Personally I think the idea that any driver is scared to share a team with any other driver is nonsense, they're very confident people, no he's only going to go if there's a decent chance McL can give him the Car to beat the rest of the field - they've going to have to work very hard to convince anyone of that for next year.

[Catatafish]

It's going to be at least halfway into next year before it begins to become clear who can and cannot make a car work with the new regs. The only reason to leave ferrari before then is some kind of emotional overreaction to Kimi beating him on track, or strop for attention.

[johneturbo]

AWRacing said:

You think Lewis will have #1 status in the team?!
Cant see that happening when Niko is doing a better job in quali and the race.

I thought Lewis was ahead of Niko in the championship.... or not?

[RXED]

johneturbo said:

I thought Lewis was ahead of Niko in the championship.... or not?

Not worked it out, but is that due to mechanical DNFs on Nico's side?

[fatbutt]

johneturbo said:

I thought Lewis was ahead of Niko in the championship.... or not?

Points vrs wins is always fun when it comes to Lewis. He's better than Niko because he has more points but Niko has more wins. Last year, Button had more points but Lewis more wins and apparently Lewis was better than Button.