Campos: McLaren are missing Alonso.

A bit of hair pulling and scratching from the bitches. Campo has a point though!

It's good to be proven right. Campos is 100% correct in saying that McLaren are missing the input of Fernando.
Last year by this time, they were leading both the CC and the WDC points, and the cars were a force to be reckoned with.
Three races after the start of the season and McLaren just discovered that their car have a lot of vices and defects, that it suffers from understeer, have digital control problems that could switch of the engine, and generally causing Lewis to finish 7th and 13th after the freak race in Oz which he won.
8 years in the doldrums must be very frustrating for a team which could have had it all last year but failed to cash in with a dream team.
JS is also spot on.

And who the hell is Adrian Campos? Another nobody from the past having a swipe at todays talent.
I don't think Lewis is missing Fernando as their driving styles are different, Mclaren may miss him for Heiki's setup. I just think the knives are out for Lewis as he's doing what others may only have dreamed of (and his last few races may have been crap but he will sort it out).

Like Alonso misses them?

What a load of rubbish. Mclaren have a habit of being up one year and down the next. So how would Campos explain that in 2005 Mclaren & Raikkonen won 7 race and the next year win none ??. No one left it just wasnt a great car - end of story !

Umm okay Humanoid, I'd say their driving styles are pretty similar. And if you actually READ the article, you will see that so does Lewis.

arcuid, you might be just right. McLaren are definetely missing Fernando, and he in turn is missing a car of the calibre of the Mclaren, not the team but the car.

humanoid989, what exactly has Lewis achieved that others may only dream of? Has he ever won an F1 World Championship? He's just a driver, and if he keeps going like this Mark Weber might be proven right, that he ((Lewis) is just a five minute wonder.
Let's see where he's going to be in two hours' time.

"Let's see where he's going to be in two hours' time."

How about in a few years time. He is not going to prove himself in one race. With or without Alonso I think the Ferrari would have always had a better can than McLaren this year. There was no way last years farce was not going to effect the team.

At the same time of course they are going to suffer without an experienced driver, that is something that can only come with time.

Well here is another case where experience plays a big part. Give a skilled driver a fine tuned car and he will rip apart the competition but give a skilled driver a car to fine tune without the experience and know-how to do so and the car will come unravel. I equate what is happening to LH as a rookie in a poker game that goes all-in every round relying on pure luck sure he will win a few hands but eventually the luck will run out and he will get busted. At the end of the season FA will be proven right that experience counts for something.

Ralf, we have seen ;0)

have you all watch the qualifying results today? have you all watch who is 2nd in the position??? wonder why? its alonzo's setup from none scoring machine... I think mclaren will miss him.... look!!!!

Yes just look who is in second position, couldn't get pole even with no weight in the car (look where the other Renault is...)

And what about luck? You don't get 2nd in your first year by pure luck... The fact that McClaren is currently the 3rd best car on the grid so 5th on the grid is not a bad result (and the fact that he is ahead of his team mate - who all the naysayers were saying was going to demolish him this year).

I agree entirely with this article entirely, another miserable performance in qualifying for Mclaren; I would go as far as saying the championships are over for Mclaren. Fernando just qualified 2nd; even if he is fueled light that is a miracle; last race he qualified tenth. Could Lewis have put the Renault on 2nd today. Fernando out qualifying Lewis makes me so happy and I'm British; I hope Fernando can beat Lewis tomorrow.

Agree with Jason! that lap from Fernando was brilliant even if he's only got 1 lap of fuel in the car let alone a stint's worth! Obviously Mclaren and BMW will be much faster than the Renault in the race but as we saw in Bahrain and other races Shamilton is not good rying to come through the pack and another collision is on the cards between a Renault and a Mclaren, that'll have Shamilton lose some sleep tonight as tomorrow could be the end of his title bid this year, especially if we see Kimi scamper off into the distance which he will.

Briliant driver and has achieved a lot, does look as though he needs some guidance to allow his talent to come through, the Itv commentator was right two young drivers with less than 100 F1 races between them,and they just don,t have the quality experience of the test drivers such as Ferrari, talk about building them up and kicking them down,oh by the what has happened to the Lewis Hamilton pre race interviews.

Let us not forget that McLaren have had to commit to not developing technologies that featured on last season's car due to the Ferrari 'Spy gate' affair. I believe this in conjunction with the fact that both drivers are relatively inexperienced in F1 is the reason for McLaren's dip in performance.
I do not agree that McLaren are 'missing' Franco Alonso. His prim donna antics last season must have been a destabilising influence on the team and his treachery in not supporting the team during the spy gate investigation can never be excused in my opinion. Yes McLaren may have lost his development experience but the overall effect of him leaving the team must be a positive.

McLaren's real problem is a boss with a patronising attitude with a mentality of a 60 years old British, not the absence of Alonso. The team seems to be able to employ only young talents, not world champions in their prime.

I used to hate Alonso. He still annoys me sometimes, throwing toys and having a cry, though I think he has learnt something from the mistakes of last year. I don't expect him to become a Kimi or a MS, his personality is just too different, but he has learnt to control his mouth a little.

His qualifying today and progress over the first 4 weekends in my view shows that Alonso really did bring a lot to McLaren last year and was treated unfairly for a 2x WC. Granted, his behaviour did him no favours but McLarens short sightedness probably cost him/them the DC.

I've come to respect Alonso as he gives 100% and wears his heart on his sleeve, for better or worse. At least he isn't a PR machine.

I do agree with you John, it is true that Alonso is one of an elite group of drivers who's skill and determination to win is unquestionable. He is at the top of his profession and given a competitive car I have no doubt he would be fighting for the World title this year. It's just his attitude and his behavior that I find distasteful.

I believe that McLaren are missing the input of about 700 pages of important stuff. Last year they got some help from Nigel...this year it's not their lucky one!