The ever lively Fernando Alonso is having what he considers to be another failed year, at least according to cryptic messages he gives on a weekly basis. We know his comments stem from him desperately wanting to compete at the front and show his championship status. Clearly with Renault he cannot.

In Fernando’s mind, this season may be another personal failure for him, but from the whole team package point of view, I think he’s having a pretty good year and his 9th place in the drivers standings with 10 points really doesn’t do him justice. Always competing, always pushing, and ultimately getting every bit of result out of his car and doing all this in every single race. These qualities are clearly the qualities of a true champion.

Looking at his season so far, results are sort of a mixed bag with a few mistakes here and there clouding what really could be a great first half season given the package he has to work with. His 4th place in Australia was exceptional considering a 14th place on the grid and was also in part due to some pretty timely luck, but in a race with carnage at every turn, luck and staying out of trouble are key. Before his first stop of the race which was a long stint he managed to maneuver into 6th place, but fell to 9th after his first stop. The last safety car he passed Kovalainen and Raikkonen and finished 4th. As I said, luck was needed in Australia, but staying out of trouble was absolute and in true Alonso style, he did just that.

Malaysia saw him qualify 7th making Q3. An outstanding effort and maybe a sign of things to come. The race was not the best, but Alonso once again drove a steady pace staying out of trouble bringing home the car in 8th place.

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There was an interview in the Times Online F1 Blog where Bernie Ecclestone was asked who he thought were the top 5 drivers in F1 so far this year and a few comments as to why. You can see it at the link above, but here’s Bernie’s list anyway followed by mine. You will see I differ from him seeing things a little differently.

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Robert Kubica
5. Felipe Massa

and another driver from a lesser team who has potential:

Sebastian Vettel

I’m a bit surprised at him putting Massa down the list in 4th after he questions Raikkonen’s desire to win on and off the track. Massa is a driven guy, of that there’s no question this year anyway. Massa’s putting his driving where his mouth is and not only that, he’s driving clean of late. Well, I put him 4th in my list as well.

He thinks Robert Kubica along side Lewis Hamilton and he would blow Lewis away. That’s a competition I’d like to see.

My list does vary a bit from Ecclestone and yes it is objective without favoritism.

1. Fernando Alonso

Despite not liking him too much, I can’t place anyone currently racing above him. He is an electrifying driver always pushing to the limit. He makes any car look much better than it is just like Michael Schumacher did. He complains about his car this year because his hunger to compete is stronger than it is. This year if he was at McLaren, he’d show Hamilton and the others what winning is all about.

2. Robert Kubica

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Although last season wasn’t such a good one for Renault, at least it was more peaceful that it is now. Heikki Kovalainen was driving ok and was doing what he could to help the team improve. Giancarlo Fisichella was also doing the same but with limited years left in him. The R27 took a big step backward and they knew it, but complaints and driver issues were kept to a minimum.

With the availability of Alonso in the off season, Renault’s future looked bright and they sunk all their cards into signing him. Nelson Piquet Jr had brought fairly impressive stats with him to F1 and Renault grabbed him too. Heikki gone, Giancarlo gone and both quite surprised with Giancarlo pretty upset about it. So where did all this get Renault?

The R28 is a little better, but not much. Alonso clearly makes the car look better than it is and for the most part is driving very well. But….

From day one of the season after actually driving the R28, Alonso hasn’t been impressed and has brought on new rumors about his future with Renault. He has not played the ‘cool the media’ game by squashing any rumors, but has instead almost led the media on with his comments.

In the other garage you have Nelson Piquet Jr who has struggled all season, has been under pressure by Renault to improve and now seems to have a serious confidence issue. Rumors and speculation about his career with Renault and even F1 have not helped and he may be in a downward spiral he can’t recover from at least with Renault.

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The topic of this post is Fernando Alonso and his future at Renault. No question that Fernando is not particularly happy with how his Renault R28 is performing this year and rumors are swirling as to whether he will continue with Renault after this season. Just about everyday he is asked questions that involve answers about his team’s performance and the rumors surrounding Felipe Massa at Ferrari and all because he is Fernando Alonso, former F1 champion and double F1 champion.

When Alonso left Renault for the seat at McLaren Mercedes, stories around the world named him as F1 champion in 2007 even before the season started. Trouble and a competitive team mate at McLaren led him back to Renault who failed badly with their R27 in 2007 but with hope of a competitive car in 2008. So far we know that the R28 isn’t what he may have hoped for, but to his credit and skill, he has driven the pants off the car and captured points, and another but; Fernando wants to get back to the front and fight with Raikkonen, McLaren, the BMW’s and climb back up to champion.

Alonso is a lot of things, but his biggest drive is to win, win, win. An admirable characteristic in an athlete, but one that sometimes comes with a price. He hates to fail and finds it almost impossible to not be in control and when his team or his car don’t follow what he considers to be the path to winning, problems are inevitable. Couple this with a prima dona attitude and a life with Fernando can be a difficult one.

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Who do you believe, or do you believe anyone. [tag]Fernando Alonso[/tag] is speaking out on his team’s chances at the [tag]Australian Grand Prix[/tag] and says they’re not good. Not only that, but he is suggesting [tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] are actually much better than they appear on testing time sheets.

“Where are we? Quite a long way behind.”

“We are not in a position to do anything about [tag]McLaren[/tag], [tag]Ferrari[/tag] or BMW.”

“Just two or three weeks ago BMW was a little further back, we were near them. Now they are quite close to McLaren.”

“They are very fast.” “They always use full tanks and record very good times.”

BMW-Suaber from [tag]Mario Theissen[/tag] on down to [tag]Nick Heidfeld[/tag] and [tag]Robert Kubica[/tag] have continuously said that they are not as happy with the [tag]F1.08[/tag] as they hoped they were at this time of year. They started with a balance problem that took a long time to rectify and have not shown as well on the time sheets as fans anticipated . Time sheets in testing are of course often misleading as teams are running on low fuel, testing different components, etc., but Alonso’s statements are a little surprising.

Alonso even suggested it will be a tough job to make it into Q3 in Australia.

This when he also suggests that [tag]Renault[/tag] will shortly test some improvements to the front of the R28 that should yield “one or two tenths” per lap.

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3 posts in one day is a little off for me, but today, well…it happened.

Another good weather day at [tag]Jerez[/tag] except for the wind. 16 driver were out today and some because of wind ended their day early not expecting to get the data they needed. [tag]Lewis Hamilton[/tag] was one of them, quiting early at 15:00.

Even though wind was a factor, [tag]Mark Webber[/tag] in the [tag]Red Bull[/tag] came out on top with a 1:18.628 in 72 laps and had both [tag]Williams[/tag] right behind. Fuel loads were probably pretty good to achieve those times and clearly Williams has solved their wing mounting problem. [tag]Honda[/tag] continue to struggle with not much difference in their time from yesterday, but at least they weren’t last.
[tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] with [tag]Nick Heidfeld[/tag] and [tag]Robert Kubica[/tag] piled on the laps today, but initially had long runs scheduled, but again, wind prevented any clear results and they abandoned that idea.

A few incidents on trace disrupted things a little. Coulthard parked unexpectedly on track and Nelson Piquet jr. copied later with an engine failure, and then Sebastien Bourdais caused a stoppage right near the end of the session.

1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1min 18.628secs 72 laps
2. Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1min 19.091secs 98 laps
3. Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1min 19.215secs 91 laps
4. Fernando Alonso Renault 1min 19.710secs 104 laps
5. Robert Kubica BMW-Sauber 1min 19.829secs 116 laps
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1min 19.857secs 68 laps
7. David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1min 19.883secs 97 laps
8. Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 19.889secs 114 laps
9. Nelson Piquet Renault 1min 20.014secs 110 laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 20.152secs 84 laps
11. Nick Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1min 20.201secs 109 laps
12. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 20.536secs 76 laps
13. Jenson Button Honda 1min 21.147secs 85 laps
14. Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1min 21.376secs 101 laps
15. Rubens Barrichello Honda 1min 21.710secs 58 laps
16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1min 22.244secs 86 laps

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So where’s Renault headed. Buoyed by the return of Fernando Alonso, Renault have placed a slightly better car on the track and are now eclipsing BMW-Sauber fairly consistently in times. Alonso, always looking to be in the fight isn’t satisfied yet and desperately wants another few 10ths out of the car.

“To close the gap, and to be behind them (Ferrari and McLaren) two or three tenths is not such a big problem. But to be one second or eight tenths, like we are at the moment, is a little bit too much.”

Fairly uneventful for Toyota, and despite continuous ‘positive’ reports from the team, times continue to be over a second off the pace. I haven’t seen any real progress in Toyota so far except for a brief period in the top 10 with Trulli seventh at 1’12.109 and Glock tenth at 1’12.705. Everyday seems to be the same thing with no real improvement seen.
Bahrain so far hasn’t proved any different. I don’t see a particularly great start to the season for Toyota.

Force India? Not bad. There is no doubt Giancarlo Fisichella’s presence at Force India is paying off. Aside from a few mechanical problems including the clutch, Fisichella managed to post the 4th fastest time on Friday. Adrian Sutil, not so lucky. for a revamped team, I’d have to say I’m impressed. Toro Rosso is now their ‘carrot’ on the road.

Fisichella:

“I’m very happy as we’re showing the potential we have now.”

I want to see what Force India has by Australia. I’m impressed with this team already and although back markers they are, it will be fun to watch the development of this team.

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Monday, January 21

Monday, Williams showed their new car for 2008 in Valencia. Test driver Nico Hulkenberg gave it a good shakedown briefly before fog stopped the session until later in the day.

Renault also rolled out the R28 at Valencia, just over a week (10 days) from their official Paris launch date. Fog again was the story of the morning delaying any work until around midday. Fernando did eventually get out and put in a good 39 laps and declared himself satisfied in his first impression of the car.

“When you have your first day with a new car, you always have to take your time to check that all the systems are functioning correctly, and that is what we did today.”

“We were able to lengthen our runs little by little and ended the day with a 14-lap stint.

Nigel Stepney got himself back in the news today saying “It’s not my fault”. He apologized for the mess created by his actions but doesn’t feel responsible for the spy scandal nor the penalties McLaren incurred.

Tuesday, January 22

Darkness seems to be the new trend on track with the news that this years Malaysian grand prix may just be the last held in daylight. The Circuit chairman, Mokhzani Mahathir spoke with the New Straits Times and hinted he was investigating the possibility of a night race for 2009.

“Our target is to have the race at night next year and the same consultants who are doing the lighting for the Singapore grand prix are advising us on our lighting system.”

BMW-Sauber showed off a radical front nose wing at testing at the Valencia circuit on Tuesday.

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Sir Jackie Stewart on Max Mosely

Jackie Stewart thinks Mosley is not well enough qualified to lead the governing body of a sport like formula one.

“This is a very heavily capital invested sport and presently the president of the FIA is not paid and therefore he is part time and an amateur.”

Heikki Kovalainen

“I heard many stories before I joined McLaren, but I have no idea where those comments are coming from.”

Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet was angry at the suggestion that he is surely the number 2 driver at Renault this year.

“That is an invention of journalists. In formula one there is no number one and number two. Both the cars are equal and here it will be the same way.”

Fernando Alonso

Interesting

“My fear is having a bad year and fighting for eighth position with no motivation.”

Kimi Raikkonen

Once again on TC ban

“For me it’s not [more dangerous].”

“And if anybody doesn’t like it they can always go and do something else.”

Timo Glock

Talking about the new Toyota

“It could be a little step back, but in the end it will pay off when we understand how the car works and make it quicker.”

Fernando Alonso

“I haven’t really got to know Nelsinho yet, but he seems to me to be a normal, nice guy who wants to enjoy his time in formula one: no different to Marques, Button, Trulli, Fisi, Montagny or McNish, all of whom were my teammates, all of whom I got on well with and who are still friends.”

“I said last year that too many false things were written, but I understand that is what sells newspapers.”

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Fernando Alonso hopped into his familiar Renault today at Jerez and he didn’t dissapoint those watching by tuning out the fastest time of the day. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t stepped into an F1 car since Brazil. Must be the 2 aces on the back of his helmet that gave him luck. His helmet has two ace cards on the back signifying his 2 F1 titles in 2005 and 2006.

Driving last years’ R27, Alonso turned in 70 laps for the day and best lap at a time of 1:19.503 which was faster than Kimi did yesterday.

“I was a bit tentative to begin with because it has been a long time since I have driven an F1 car, but I could not wait to start working with the team,” he said at Jerez.

“Of course, this was the first time that I have driven without traction control, but towards the end of my runs I started to gradually take a few more risks with the car.”

When asked about the loss of traction control, Alonso had no worries at all and said all drivers will adapt very soon and will have forgotten TC ever existed.
Considering all the whining being done over the TC ban, Alonso had this to say:

“The car is not radically different,” he said.

“With the new regulations, we will work in the same way and I believe it will be down to the driver to adapt accordingly.”

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