F1 » Blundell's view: F1 season review - Pt. 1

opinion on what? mclaren was just a repeat of what happened to many other drivers at mclaren including DC, montoya, prost etc.

or are u saying alonso was responsible for stealing info from ferrari? i think its clear who that was. the problem came when the boss decided to lie about it. im not saying fernando is 100% honest, but his career is much more honest than many other multi champs, and he is fair on track 98% of the time. yes pedro and alonso knew about data they had, which was given to them by MCLAREN, thats right MCLAREN. Not ferrari, not stolen by alonso but MCLAREN. sorry to make it so simple.

what i am saying is this idea that he is some horrible anti team player is Bull.

at the end of the day, the obtaining of ferrari data and the spreading of it through the mclaren team is a mclaren design and management issue(they did both them things-pedro, alonso and lewis didnt steal the data) fact. hence the punishment.

i dont blame dennis for protecting lewis. he was right to do that, but he should of been honest through out. i also dont blame him for not protecting fernando as it was clear he was going. but again he should of been honest, which he wasnt. he openly lied at silverstone saying he knew nothing-which was later proved a lie.

what they didnt wasnt that bad, they way they handled it and tried to drop the wrong people in it. was classic mclaren.

sorry tupac, i jumped the gun. me bad. i aplogise, its usually thats the idea people give on here about fernando.

i will re think your question.

i dont think they got on, they didnt gel like renault alonso did. then the lewis factor came up, it was clear lewis was a driver on a similar level to fernando. with more potential as a product, esp to the UK. and mclaren lent towards him, like they did with senna, mika and kimi.

alonso probably thought, wait a mo, im the 2x champ, i was hired to lead the team. yet my boss(ron) is telling the world he doesnt talk to me(hungary).

as proven by DC recently saying ron didnt even speak to him either. alonso being the hot temperd man he is probably, perhaps to quickly got fed up of it.

as would senna, prost and michael would of in similar circumstances. IM0 neither handled it well.

both were to blame, alonso was very silly to go there and handled it badly.

mclaren were mclaren. at least ferrari never lied about there bias. i dont blame lewis in anyway at all, he played up to it brilliantly. as fernando would of if the roles were reversed. lewis and fernando are very similar, and that was the problem. lewis was instantly quick, just like fernando was in 03.

both were great, both have flaws. and both really need a team to work to them. probably why both were fast and happy towards the end of 08. and i hope both remain quick in 09. will be great to watch

I don't see Kovi getting his act together anytime soon. I also can't imagine that his recent comments about not getting a competitive strategy during qualifying have done him any favors. Mclaren do seem to understand that it is an advantage to have team leader or dominant driver. When they have strayed from this it tends to explode. Drivers have such fragile egos that it takes a really special team to have harmony when there is true parity. I am sorry to reference MotoGP but look at the Hayden - Pedrosa relationship that was allowed to fester by their management. Even Williams handled the Hill - JV relationship poorly.

thanks Tupac!, sorry for jumping the gun. sometimes fernando fans(and lewis fans) have to get defensive on sites like this.

i always thought the hill jv battle was ok, they are still good friends. recently JV said how much he learned from hill and tried not to step on his shoes at williams, but still race him. and hill has always said good things about him. i always thought they worked well both being sons of drivers.

shame they never were team mates again.

tho williams handled piquet mansell badly(very like lewis and fernando) but frank was very ill at the time so it all got out of control. piquet was promised things that patrick couldnt inforce.

i always got the impression JV struggled with team mates early on(except hill) but then got on later. both with massa and button got off to very shakey starts but they ended up getting on ok.

i remember pat symonds saying very good things about JV. but for some reason a bad rep would follow him around. shame, he should of acheived more.

I guess that the trick is to have a completly dominant team or second driver that can take the fight to another team without destabilizing the first driver.

yes, and a team mate than can win on the days, lewis, alonso or michael etc are out or having a off day.

patrase, barichello, coulthard, kova(sort of) fit the bill well.