Alonso quote

[Trevor Little (Trevturtle) - Treasurer]

 During first practice Alonso's McLaren died on the first lap out of the pits in Barcelona 

, Honda blamed the failure on an oil leak. Alonso said later: "The oil was coming out of a hole in the engine."  

 

[DonPeffers]

Alonso unhappy with his Honda engine pace and reliability.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39901967

"It is not my career, my ability, my image [at stake]. It is their career, ability, money and image," Alonso said.

Meaning Honda.

Not a happy camper and hoping he has better luck in the Indy 500.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

To get that car to 7th in qually shows what an epic driver he is. A crying shame to see him and McLaren in the state they're in. The sooner they dump honda the better. Even though honda are paying half of alonso's wages he still can't hold his opinions in! Would love to be a fly on the wall In the team meetings away from the cameras.

Can't believe sauber have signed up to Honda donkeys next year. Unless they're getting them for next to nowt.

 

[XTR2Turbo]

Whilst a quick driver I'm not sure Alonso works well enough with the team and engineers to take a team forward.  Look at his time at Ferrari and Maclaren when both teams went backwards.

Compare to Schumacher and Vettel at Ferrari

 

David

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Whilst I agree he's a fractious character he can only drive the car he's given. Ferrari have been a mess for years and only have got their act together after a huge shakeup behind the scenes. He doesn't design or build the car or engine. He out drove the Renault to win his 2 titles. He out drove his team mates at Ferrari and is making a bright young prospect at McLaren look distinctly average. 

He's made some poor decisions in team moves at the wrong times which has contributed to him not adding to his titles. But other than that I would say he's in the top 3 drivers on the grid at present.

[jeff oakley]

I think Alonso is without doubt on a par or better than Hamilton, the big but is he seems to have a management team that makes a real dangler up of moving to a team in turmoil.

A driver can develop the handling of a car but they cannot stop engines failing, they cannot make up for a lack of power.

For evidence of that look at Vettel, he now has a car that has the power and reliability, so far to take the fight to Hamilton. Bottas has the same car as Hamilton and is doing well but Vettel is doing better than him overall.

Alonso in a great car is what we want and McLaren need to sort themselves out. There has been one error after another there and now Ron is out of the picture I am not sure they have an easy way back. I wouldn't be surprised to see Williams overtake them soon, if they get the budget.