Has Alonso now got the upper-hand?
Discussion
Is has been widely reported that Alonso has finally found his feet with regards to changing and adopting a different way of driving the car to optimise the tyres, and in the past few races he has certainly shown a different side to himself behind the wheel.
With lady luck shinning on him instead of his team-mate, do you feel that Alonso now has a strong chance of over-hauling Lewis, and fighting for that third successive title that he'd planned all along now?
How quick can Lewis bounce back from this weekend, having seen his lead vanish so quickly...
With lady luck shinning on him instead of his team-mate, do you feel that Alonso now has a strong chance of over-hauling Lewis, and fighting for that third successive title that he'd planned all along now?
How quick can Lewis bounce back from this weekend, having seen his lead vanish so quickly...
I don't think he's quite got the upper hand yet but he's certainly over his recent lack of form!
Didn't Lewis put in faster laps than Alonso though? I'm of the opinion that they are both pretty equal in terms of absolute pace and the real difference is in terms of mental toughness and experience.
If it was Lewis' appraisal of the situation that made the team bring him in for slicks a few laps early then that would be -1 in the experience column for Lewis! As it was it gave the team (and the other teams) enough data to know the optimium time to bring Alonso in when Lewis was unlikely to make a real difference in teh race...
Didn't Lewis put in faster laps than Alonso though? I'm of the opinion that they are both pretty equal in terms of absolute pace and the real difference is in terms of mental toughness and experience.
If it was Lewis' appraisal of the situation that made the team bring him in for slicks a few laps early then that would be -1 in the experience column for Lewis! As it was it gave the team (and the other teams) enough data to know the optimium time to bring Alonso in when Lewis was unlikely to make a real difference in teh race...
FWIW, I'd say that Alonso always has had the upper hand.
Lewis is just amazingly skilful, brave and focused. There is no question at all that this man will be a WC, and more than once.
But no matter how good you are, without the experience of having lived and competed in their intense, rarefied world for an extended period, you just cannot know what it is like. As they say, "It's a long season."
Alonso is damn good. He humiliated the venerable Fisichella and beat both Kimi one year and Michael the other in straight fights. He takes no prisoners, as we saw yesterday both as he exited his pit box the last time and when he fought Massa. He is one tough character.
Perhaps Lewis will win the title this year, or perhaps one of the Italians will. So far, however, Alonso has had the upper hand, and its only now, after a number of races, that his inherent edge over Lewis will begin to narrow.
As the weekend unfolded, it became clearer that this was going to be the best F1 learning experience that Lewis could have. I daresay he grew up more in the last three days than he did in the previous three months of podium finishes.
Lewis is just amazingly skilful, brave and focused. There is no question at all that this man will be a WC, and more than once.
But no matter how good you are, without the experience of having lived and competed in their intense, rarefied world for an extended period, you just cannot know what it is like. As they say, "It's a long season."
Alonso is damn good. He humiliated the venerable Fisichella and beat both Kimi one year and Michael the other in straight fights. He takes no prisoners, as we saw yesterday both as he exited his pit box the last time and when he fought Massa. He is one tough character.
Perhaps Lewis will win the title this year, or perhaps one of the Italians will. So far, however, Alonso has had the upper hand, and its only now, after a number of races, that his inherent edge over Lewis will begin to narrow.
As the weekend unfolded, it became clearer that this was going to be the best F1 learning experience that Lewis could have. I daresay he grew up more in the last three days than he did in the previous three months of podium finishes.
flemke said:
FWIW, I'd say that Alonso always has had the upper hand.
Lewis is just amazingly skilful, brave and focused. There is no question at all that this man will be a WC, and more than once.
But no matter how good you are, without the experience of having lived and competed in their intense, rarefied world for an extended period, you just cannot know what it is like. As they say, "It's a long season."
Alonso is damn good. He humiliated the venerable Fisichella and beat both Kimi one year and Michael the other in straight fights. He takes no prisoners, as we saw yesterday both as he exited his pit box the lsat time and when he fought Massa. He is one tough character.
Perhaps Lewis will win it this year, or perhaps one of the Italians will. So far, however, Alonso has had the open hand, and its only now, after ten races, that his inherent edge over Lewis will begin to narrow.
As the weekend unfolded, it became clearer that this was going to be the best F1 learning experience that Lewis could have. I daresay he grew up more in the last three days than he did in the previous three months of podium finishes.
I quite agree. Alonso is a phenomenal talent and still young. It cuts both ways though - I am sure he thought he'd be the de facto number 1 and Lewis' mature performances and sheer speed have pushed Alonso to really take more risks than he might otherwise have taken. You could see yesterday just how much that victory meant to him. He knows that those extra 2 points that victory gave him mean that a 1-2 Mclaren finish in Hungary with him on top will tie them both at the top.Lewis is just amazingly skilful, brave and focused. There is no question at all that this man will be a WC, and more than once.
But no matter how good you are, without the experience of having lived and competed in their intense, rarefied world for an extended period, you just cannot know what it is like. As they say, "It's a long season."
Alonso is damn good. He humiliated the venerable Fisichella and beat both Kimi one year and Michael the other in straight fights. He takes no prisoners, as we saw yesterday both as he exited his pit box the lsat time and when he fought Massa. He is one tough character.
Perhaps Lewis will win it this year, or perhaps one of the Italians will. So far, however, Alonso has had the open hand, and its only now, after ten races, that his inherent edge over Lewis will begin to narrow.
As the weekend unfolded, it became clearer that this was going to be the best F1 learning experience that Lewis could have. I daresay he grew up more in the last three days than he did in the previous three months of podium finishes.
rubystone said:
I quite agree. Alonso is a phenomenal talent and still young. It cuts both ways though - I am sure he thought he'd be the de facto number 1 and Lewis' mature performances and sheer speed have pushed Alonso to really take more risks than he might otherwise have taken. You could see yesterday just how much that victory meant to him. He knows that those extra 2 points that victory gave him mean that a 1-2 Mclaren finish in Hungary with him on top will tie them both at the top.
Alonso seems to need to feel the love more than most of these guys do, and when Lewis was performing a bit better than he, Alonso seemed to let himself get into something of vicious circle: dropping his head slightly, then being less settled on the circuit, which led to less-good performances, etc.As you say, Alonso too has room to grow. Finally being directly up against a championship-level teammate has forced him to dig deeper, which he seems to be doing.
Great times for F1 (apart from the Max part, of course)
Has Alonso now got the upper-hand?
No.
What you can say is that FA and LH now have one mechanical failure each, so with only 2 points between them it is a pretty fair representation of how they have raced.
FA has driven like an idiot at the start of two GP's, LH has yet to drive like an idiot.
LH still seems to have a touch more one-lap pace, FA is maybe running better races.
Wide open still. Massa still in with a shout. Kimi out of touch now I think.
No.
What you can say is that FA and LH now have one mechanical failure each, so with only 2 points between them it is a pretty fair representation of how they have raced.
FA has driven like an idiot at the start of two GP's, LH has yet to drive like an idiot.
LH still seems to have a touch more one-lap pace, FA is maybe running better races.
Wide open still. Massa still in with a shout. Kimi out of touch now I think.
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