Alonso talks about Hamilton

[Duke of Rothesay]

"He is a great champion and should just keep winning," said the Spaniard.

"Lewis has always been a great driver. He fought for the world championship in his first season in Formula One, and won it in the second season.

"So to help his reputation that is damaged now, that is very easy - just keep winning. He will make people, his supporters, happy."


and

"We had good competition that helped each other to find our limits, and I can say I miss that competition in a way because it was fun to push and find new limits for ourselves.

"The problems I had there (at McLaren) were with the big bosses and the philosophy of the team, which is why I decided to move on from that period of my career."

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

[_Batty_]

i sway between love and hate with Mr Monobrow.
he's very honest, and i guess says whats on his mind, whether that be bitter whinging to serious matters of the motorsport.

nice of him to be honest and put the final pin in Piquet's voodoo doll.

[Jack Blag]

Love him or hate him, no one can develop a winning car like Alonso. My dream team would be Vettel and Alonso, with Gerhard Berger as team manager!

[Scuffers]

Jack Blag said:

Love him or hate him, no one can develop a winning car like Alonso. My dream team would be Vettel and Alonso, with Gerhard Berger as team manager!

Based on what?

[elster]

Scuffers said:

Jack Blag said:

Love him or hate him, no one can develop a winning car like Alonso. My dream team would be Vettel and Alonso, with Gerhard Berger as team manager!

Based on what?

I believe he has a bag of names and plucked 3 out of it.

[dom180]

Duke of Rothesay said:

"He is a great champion and should just keep winning," said the Spaniard.

"Lewis has always been a great driver. He fought for the world championship in his first season in Formula One, and won it in the second season.

"So to help his reputation that is damaged now, that is very easy - just keep winning. He will make people, his supporters, happy."


and

"We had good competition that helped each other to find our limits, and I can say I miss that competition in a way because it was fun to push and find new limits for ourselves.

"The problems I had there (at McLaren) were with the big bosses and the philosophy of the team, which is why I decided to move on from that period of my career."

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

Lol! Lewis' reputation not half as trashed as Alonsos. Don't recall Alonso relishing competition from Lewis at the time!

[elster]

dom180 said:

Lol! Lewis' reputation not half as trashed as Alonsos. Don't recall Alonso relishing competition from Lewis at the time!

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

[RJB_666]

Respect meter had gone up a little for Fernando again. He does say some stupid things but he's beginning to outnumber these with more mature sensible comments. I even was reasonably happy to see him win two races last season, well he did fully deserve them with faultless racing on the day.

[dom180]

elster said:

dom180 said:

Lol! Lewis' reputation not half as trashed as Alonsos. Don't recall Alonso relishing competition from Lewis at the time!

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Drivers are like lightbulbs - team owners are only concerned with wattage. And obeying team orders.

[StevieBee]

elster said:

dom180 said:

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Mmm. Not so sure. Is it not the case that it was the team that forced him into the situation? It was after all Lewis that was the first to hold his hands up and I wonder what direction the team would have gone had he not done that.

[dom180]

StevieBee said:

elster said:

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Mmm. Not so sure. Is it not the case that it was the team that forced him into the situation? It was after all Lewis that was the first to hold his hands up and I wonder what direction the team would have gone had he not done that.

Helped you there.

[mattikake]

All the F1 drivers are racers who love to compete. I think while they detest being beaten more than anything, they also miss fighting with the best opposition in the purest way they know.

I would.

Senna missed Prost by '94, despite them hating each other at one point.

[elster]

dom180 said:

elster said:

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Drivers are like lightbulbs - team owners are only concerned with wattage. And obeying team orders.

I think I have missed your point. As what has that got to do with Alonso and Hamiltons reputation?

[dom180]

elster said:

dom180 said:

elster said:

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Drivers are like lightbulbs - team owners are only concerned with wattage. And obeying team orders.

I think I have missed your point. As what has that got to do with Alonso and Hamiltons reputation?

Team bosses just want the faster driver - not one driven out of a team by a rookie. And they like their drivers to follow orders - Lewis was taking advice from the team during the Trulli incident and woz only obeying ze orders.

[elster]

dom180 said:

elster said:

dom180 said:

elster said:

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

Drivers are like lightbulbs - team owners are only concerned with wattage. And obeying team orders.

I think I have missed your point. As what has that got to do with Alonso and Hamiltons reputation?

Team bosses just want the faster driver - not one driven out of a team by a rookie. And they like their drivers to follow orders - Lewis was taking advice from the team during the Trulli incident and woz only obeying ze orders.

But the discussion was about reputation. No matter who told him to lie, he lied. This is not good for reputation. He was slated heavily worldwide. With Alonso nothing really is reported other than in France and Spain.

[team underdog]

Seems to me that Alonso is being honest in that it was the team he took issue with - I can't recall many quotes from him where he has personally slated Lewis. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure someone will!).

His comment about the "philosophy" of the team and the "big bosses" suggests to me he wasn't happy to be the little puppy dog and roll over when they told him to. And fair play to him, I've far more respect for that than if he were to say, lie in a stewards inquiry for example, just because he was told to.

I appreciate Alonso is a bit of a marmite character, but I'll always choose to admire his willingness to speak out and generally be a bit rogue. More than that though, he's a bloody good racing driver.

Edited by team underdog on Thursday 7th May 23:52

[flemke]

elster said:

dom180 said:

Lol! Lewis' reputation not half as trashed as Alonsos. Don't recall Alonso relishing competition from Lewis at the time!

I think you must of missed the past couple of months of worldwide media coverage of Lewis Hamilton being slated for lying.

Lewis Hamiltons professional reputation is the lowest of all drivers at the moment (not for his driving, but for his actions)

That may be so, but if Alonso's character (as opposed to his magnificent abilities as a driver) is broadly admired today, it can only be because people's memories do not extend back as long as two years. As such, he more than anyone would know how a champion's indiscretions will be quickly forgotten.

[elster]

flemke said:

That may be so, but if Alonso's character (as opposed to his magnificent abilities as a driver) is broadly admired today, it can only be because people's memories do not extend back as long as two years. As such, he more than anyone would know how a champion's indiscretions will be quickly forgotten.

All reputations in the modern world seem to be of the now, rather than looking into the past.

One example is the odious Jade Goody.

[heebeegeetee]

elster said:

He was slated heavily worldwide. With Alonso nothing really is reported other than in France and Spain.

How do you know?

[elster]

heebeegeetee said:

elster said:

He was slated heavily worldwide. With Alonso nothing really is reported other than in France and Spain.

How do you know?

As I am yet to see front page news on Alonso in any country other than Spain and France.