Carlis
29th Jul 2006, 08:46 PM
Ok, he is a great driver... but he is a little bit of a BIG whinner as well...
Today, in qualy, we had the pleasure of hearing this pearl:
Alonso: Did you see what Michael did? (voice agitated and irritated after waving his fist to show his disgust for a driver leaving his pitbox in front of him)
Symmonds: Yes Fernando... I see that... (nursering voice, the same one moms use to have when they are trying to calm down they little babies after they let drop the big top scoop of ice cream from the cone mommy just bought for them...)
So... what was *wrong* with this move?
Lollypop man from Ferrari checks the pitlane... He sees that the blue lollypop man is lifting his signal and that Fernando is going to left his garage... he *knows* that Michael has more than enough time to put his nose in front of Alonso, and lifts the sign.
Michael leaves his pitbox, but, because the team is working on Massa's car, he can't leave in the "regular" line, but has to turn hard to the left and then to the right. He has to do this *very slowly* because he doesn't wants to hit the Ferrari mechanics on Massa's car AND he doesn't want his car to hit the wall, which surely would bring in a red flag, sending him to the last row of the grid.
When he does the first turn, EUREKA! his Ferrari's front wing is in front of Alonso's Renault. Alonso has to back-up and let him take the position OR crashing against Michael, which would automatically send him to P22... Alonso doesn't want that and hence, he lifts.... Oh, but not before waving his fist and complaining about Michael *unsporting behavior*.
Do we have antecedents of similar moves in the pits in the past?
YES! Virtually, every single race we have a *close* moment on the pit...
Why this one was so special that Fernando had the need to complain?
No idea.
Was this any worst than, for instance, the Toyota mechanics telling Ralf to leave the garage without even checking if the pitlane was clear or not? NOT AT ALL!!!
Have we heard anyone of the "protagonists" of this "Toyota incident" saying anything about it?
NO!
Why not?
Because pit incidents happen all the time. Drivers know it and they are 110% aware inside the pitlane in case someone is going to/leaving his box. They know they are ALWAYS racing inside the pitlane, specially when the clock is ticking down!
Then why, oh why, did Alonso have had to do such a scene and, even more, why did Renault feel that they have to put it on OPEN RADIO, so we could all hear how "dirty" bad-Michael was?
Don't know...
My 2 cents are: Fernando is losing it (on the psychological battle) to Schumacher, and he is starting to see ghosts when there is none. He has been complaining quite a lot in the last two weeks about "how hard" it is for him to fight Michael because "Ferrari uses Massa to support him" but he has "never ever received any help" from Renault (curiously enough, he seems to have forgotten everything about France'05, Silverstone'05, Turkey'05, China'05, Barcelona'06, Monaco'06 among others...)
Then we heard him claiming that "I can win the championship and I don't need any help for that" (What??? Didn't he tell us two weeks ago that he would need "help" in order to contain Ferrari's charge?) and, furthermore, he comes out and says that the battle in 2005 was "tougher" than it is this year!!! (But Pat Symmonds said that in 2005 they just relaxed and waited for Raikkonen to break down because they knew the championship was on their pockets, but that this year they would have had to fight for the victory every single time because Schumacher/Ferrari was a stronger rival...) Before this, we never heard anything from Alonso, but lately, he has becoming quite vocal (and as usual, contradicting himself in consecutive statements). He is losing it... oh yeah he is losing it... and if he does a mistake on track, or loses at least 5 points tomorrow against Michael he will be losing it even more!
Today, in qualy, we had the pleasure of hearing this pearl:
Alonso: Did you see what Michael did? (voice agitated and irritated after waving his fist to show his disgust for a driver leaving his pitbox in front of him)
Symmonds: Yes Fernando... I see that... (nursering voice, the same one moms use to have when they are trying to calm down they little babies after they let drop the big top scoop of ice cream from the cone mommy just bought for them...)
So... what was *wrong* with this move?
Lollypop man from Ferrari checks the pitlane... He sees that the blue lollypop man is lifting his signal and that Fernando is going to left his garage... he *knows* that Michael has more than enough time to put his nose in front of Alonso, and lifts the sign.
Michael leaves his pitbox, but, because the team is working on Massa's car, he can't leave in the "regular" line, but has to turn hard to the left and then to the right. He has to do this *very slowly* because he doesn't wants to hit the Ferrari mechanics on Massa's car AND he doesn't want his car to hit the wall, which surely would bring in a red flag, sending him to the last row of the grid.
When he does the first turn, EUREKA! his Ferrari's front wing is in front of Alonso's Renault. Alonso has to back-up and let him take the position OR crashing against Michael, which would automatically send him to P22... Alonso doesn't want that and hence, he lifts.... Oh, but not before waving his fist and complaining about Michael *unsporting behavior*.
Do we have antecedents of similar moves in the pits in the past?
YES! Virtually, every single race we have a *close* moment on the pit...
Why this one was so special that Fernando had the need to complain?
No idea.
Was this any worst than, for instance, the Toyota mechanics telling Ralf to leave the garage without even checking if the pitlane was clear or not? NOT AT ALL!!!
Have we heard anyone of the "protagonists" of this "Toyota incident" saying anything about it?
NO!
Why not?
Because pit incidents happen all the time. Drivers know it and they are 110% aware inside the pitlane in case someone is going to/leaving his box. They know they are ALWAYS racing inside the pitlane, specially when the clock is ticking down!
Then why, oh why, did Alonso have had to do such a scene and, even more, why did Renault feel that they have to put it on OPEN RADIO, so we could all hear how "dirty" bad-Michael was?
Don't know...
My 2 cents are: Fernando is losing it (on the psychological battle) to Schumacher, and he is starting to see ghosts when there is none. He has been complaining quite a lot in the last two weeks about "how hard" it is for him to fight Michael because "Ferrari uses Massa to support him" but he has "never ever received any help" from Renault (curiously enough, he seems to have forgotten everything about France'05, Silverstone'05, Turkey'05, China'05, Barcelona'06, Monaco'06 among others...)
Then we heard him claiming that "I can win the championship and I don't need any help for that" (What??? Didn't he tell us two weeks ago that he would need "help" in order to contain Ferrari's charge?) and, furthermore, he comes out and says that the battle in 2005 was "tougher" than it is this year!!! (But Pat Symmonds said that in 2005 they just relaxed and waited for Raikkonen to break down because they knew the championship was on their pockets, but that this year they would have had to fight for the victory every single time because Schumacher/Ferrari was a stronger rival...) Before this, we never heard anything from Alonso, but lately, he has becoming quite vocal (and as usual, contradicting himself in consecutive statements). He is losing it... oh yeah he is losing it... and if he does a mistake on track, or loses at least 5 points tomorrow against Michael he will be losing it even more!