Should Alonso have criticised Honda on team radio?

[Erwin Greven]

But is he as fast as even his teammate?

Malaysian GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Chinese GP - out-qualified
Bahrain GP - no teammate to beat
Spanish GP - out-raced
Monaco GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Canadian GP - out-raced, despite Jenson starting at the back due to engine penalties
Austrian GP - out-raced (you can blame Kimi for this one)
British GP - scored his first point
Hungarian GP - great race, scoring 10 points
Belgian GP - out-qualified
Italian GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Singapore GP - out-raced

In fact, Japan is the only race where he out-qualified and out-raced his teammate, who understands how to act in public (yea, I know he let something slip too, but he was being critical of himself).

http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2015-f1/alonso-versus-button/

Best Qualifier: Alonso
Best Race Results: Alonso
Most points: Alonso

 

[David O'Reilly]

This thread turned into a how-much-I-am-in-love with-or-dislike another person thread. He's a jerk, he's mean, oh he's so charming, I love his wittiness it's sexy, he's rude but I could probably deal with it because of his nice abs, blah blah blah.

Last I heard, drivers are there to win and race. Some people pay attention to the "character" of a person (as if they even knew them on a personal level in the first place), it's hilarious.

Well in part because the drivers ability to galvanise a team behind a project and push it forwards is sometimes really helpful.
Yes they are there to race each other but some drivers have shown an ability to work WITH their team not just use the tools the team gives them.

Schumacher (who I never liked after 94 Adelaide BTW) was good at it. He drove the engine team to near break down then rewarded his 40 key staff with a numbered and autographed Omega Speedmaster when they got him the title.

Irvine was not.

Prost was good at it, so was Senna (maybe hence the clash).

Piquet I don't know but you get my drift.

There is being selfish and there is being clever.

No one likes a prima donna and maybe Alonso is not the lucky charm..

 

[THERED5]

Undoubtedly he has his views and I can see what he is possibly trying to achieve , but it's really not a positive approach. Attempting to embarrass Honda at their home GP even if he is correct is not a smart move and I have seen drivers even the great Alain Prost sacked for similar outbursts. I think he would have had a better reaction if he kept his comments in house. Lets be fair Honda have only just returned to F1 so asking them to "catch up" to the Mercs and Ferrari is pretty much impossible in the 1st year bearing in mind the current restrictions in place, you only have to look at the Red Bull /Renault debacle to see what sort of issues that have caused

 

[Furtibe]

Alonso is the most talented driver,his situation is not fair.

 

[James Robertson]

I don't think Alonso's gp 2 comment was not necessarily about Honda but more about the state of F1 at the moment, it's well known the drivers don't get the same buzz from driving any more.

 

[Spinelli]

http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2015-f1/alonso-versus-button/

Best Qualifier: Alonso
Best Race Results: Alonso
Most points: Alonso

Add these to the last. Absolute obliteration

http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2014-f1/alonso-versus-raikkonen/
http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2013-f1/alonso-versus-massa/
http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2012-f1/alonso-versus-massa/

 

[gabolifal]

He totally deserves this situation. If he could behave more like everybody else does, he would still be racing at Ferrari.

 

[Sam Hill]

The fault lies with the broadcasters. If any driver feels they need to complain to their team they should be able to do it privately. Not all communications are broadcast, just the ones that'll stir stuff up. F1 is so boring right now that they need to broadcast this and start a petty argument to stop the viewers falling asleep

 

[Michael Stead]

Alonso made the statement knowing full well that it would be broadcast. If a driver feels the need to complain they should do it in private.

 

[FirecrazyCZ]

Perhaps it might be Alonso who is the problem. (Slap). Oh wait, never-mind...he's perfect. As usual, I'm on the other end here, but it's not the first time.

This highlights why Alonso is, and never will be a "team player" in any form. He's out for himself, which is not bad, IMO, but his silky smooth off mic persona is not who you get in person at home. Sort of the opposite of Raikkkonen. No thanks Mr. Alonso...if I'm a team owner. If an F1 driver can't understand 1.) The Japanese culture, particularly the part that anyone remotely familiar with with Asian societies knows re: public shaming being worse than being beaten; and 2.) that critisizm of the people who pay you millions has a place and time that does not include the public airways, then he's not as smart as people think. But is he as fast as even his teammate?

Malaysian GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Chinese GP - out-qualified
Bahrain GP - no teammate to beat
Spanish GP - out-raced
Monaco GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Canadian GP - out-raced, despite Jenson starting at the back due to engine penalties
Austrian GP - out-raced (you can blame Kimi for this one)
British GP - scored his first point
Hungarian GP - great race, scoring 10 points
Belgian GP - out-qualified
Italian GP - out-qualified and out-raced
Singapore GP - out-raced

In fact, Japan is the only race where he out-qualified and out-raced his teammate, who understands how to act in public (yea, I know he let something slip too, but he was being critical of himself).

So, maybe instead of humiliating Honda and McLaren in public, he should concentrate on stepping up his own game. He's a little old for F1 anyway, eh?

So get your **** right completely now say how much did Alonsos car die.

 

[Nox]

So we've had 15 races this year. Let's say the car had been good but Alonso had been terrible in all 15 races, is there any chance the team wouldn't have publicly said he is under performing? Not a chance in hell. Of course they'd have said something, just as Alonso said something. I'm not saying it was professional but I understand why he did it. And now, as usual in F1, it gets blown way out of proportion to distract viewers from the fact the racing is absolute pants.

 

[Sam Hill]

Alonso made the statement knowing full well that it would be broadcast. If a driver feels the need to complain they should do it in private.

The drivers only method of communicating with the team should be private! He didn't know it would be broadcast, as not every radio message is

 

[thewarmer]

Why the hell not , the car is no of the quality needed to battle for the top place ,
so why say nothing . He just used the Niki Lauda approach to dealing with he own feeling on a bad package , back then they said ho you can not say bad things to Mr Ferrari , in fact Ferrari respected his honesty & built a winning car for him .
Truth is always better than BS just to keep people happy.
I am sure Honda want to avoid another repeat of their last failed attempts to return to the top of F1 having won nothing since the Senna era .
Unlike Mercedes they so far seem to be unable to return to thier past glory days of the Turbo Era & first part of the late 80's start of the 90's none Turbo Era.

 

[Michael Stead]

The drivers only method of communicating with the team should be private! He didn't know it would be broadcast, as not every radio message is

Not every message is no. But with something that deliberately inflammatory it stood a fair chance of being broadcast and he knew it. It had nothing to do with the race, and didn't need to be said during the race when he knows people are listening. The only reason to say it during the race is to vent his frustrations in public and embarrass the team.

 

[Sam Hill]

Not every message is no. But with something that deliberately inflammatory it stood a fair chance of being broadcast and he knew it. It had nothing to do with the race, and didn't need to be said during the race when he knows people are listening. The only reason to say it during the race is to vent his frustrations in public and embarrass the team.

He should still be able to talk to the team privately though. And when he is being embarrassed by inferior drivers then it is totally understandable that he wants to vent his frustrations in the race. It wasn't done publicly. It was done privately, and then broadcast like a pathetic soap. It is 100% the medias fault for it being an issue

 

[Nox]

While I think it's blown out of proportion, @Sam Hill let's not pretend Alonso is a victim here. He knows very well that the radio is open to the media, and that there's a chance anything he said might get broadcast. It wasn't done privately at all, he knew other people apart from the team were listening in.

 

[Alberto Casado]

Alonso wanted to rub it in. A year has passed and if you look at Honda the speech is not changing much. Barely two months ago they were promising to match Ferrari's pace (is _lying_ like that professional?)

This was a clear 'do something different because I am done covering for your incompetence'. Everybody has their limits. As for the other great drivers that can lead a team across journeys through the desert, while Alonso is pure team toxin... I can hardly remember any graceful loser in F1.

Schumacher? Yeah, sure, best example of fair play he was! And when things did not go his way he never spoke up, right. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9260446.stm

Vettel? http://sports.yahoo.com/news/vettel-blames-lack-power-mercedes-gap-155510220--f1.html

Button? (which by the way I consider very highly as a sportsman compared with the previous two) http://www.f1technical.net/news/1134 Bar
http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/392562/Button_blames_McLaren_mistakes/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...r-scary-drive-reveals-fears-British-team.html

Hamilton? http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/lewis-hamilton-blames-mclaren-reliability-1418296

Mind that, except Button (which is from all the mildest complainer) none of the others has dealt with a car as abysmal as the McLaren-Honda is (besides their early seasons in Bar/TR etc, and those were not even THAT bad).

So, really, I don't know why Alonso has be holier than anybody after basically 9 years of continuous frustration, and now get to drive... that thing, should he praise Honda? (Which he has!)

 

[Nasos Charalampou]

Have we really reached that all time low where even a great racer and champion cant tell what it should be told?

F1s 2015 engines are a joke -especially Hondas-,driving is not a rollercoaster ride that it should be -remember that F1 is the modernized roman arena version- and thats why you cant really pick apart great drivers from the rest of the field since the engive mgu ufg lse blah blah combo is the most attributing factor for a race outcome.

Also its not helping the fact that drivers wont mature progressively.They peak and almost have to retire at 25yo eg,see Red Bulls program.Gone are the times of eg Grönholm who appeared ''almost'' out of the blue in the WRC scene at his early 30s and got himself a championship.Thats truly talent and not todays calculators-machinists that are consider to drive fast -there are always exceptions to this but i speak for the bigger picture-.When they had to go the extra mile and take that leap of faith that proved its higher brain capacity and skillset amongst the rest of the field.

I know im getting older and we re forced to get better faster than ever before but at a cost of mediocre standards and not enough exceptionally extraordinary individuals.

I consider Alonso to be one of those great individuals even if i wasnt always a fan of his tactics and choices but a gem is a gem no matter what.

F1s plague is mr.Evil aka Bernie.If he ever leaves i except initial chaos at first but i believe there will be ppl that could do a better job bringing some glory back to the sport.The magic sauce that is missing.

I mean the main rivalry of 2015 is Hamilton -a great driver and champion- with the mediocre at best Rosberg,do i need to say more?

ps:sorry for the lengthy post

 

[Spinelli]

He totally deserves this situation. If he could behave more like everybody else does, he would still be racing at Ferrari.

Alonso wanted, and decided, to leave. Ferrari would have kept him if it was up to them. Did you even follow the season? It wasn't a secret.

 

[Bokonon]

Great driver, bad attitude, that is Alonso in a nutshell. If I was an owner he would get a drive, but I would not trust him further than I could throw him.