The occasional off topic posts are OK, but the Raikkonen debate is gathering a life of its own. Mea culpa
Lets talk about Lotus team in the Lotus thread http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... ead#unread
It's obvious this season has been nerve breaking for both Alonso and Ferrari, surprisingly much more so than 2012 with the early donkey or 2011. I believe it's due to unmet expectations. At China, The F-138 gave Alonso what was possibly his most comfortable race win since early 2006. With a car that kept the tyres and had plenty of fast corner downforce, they also won quite comfortably in Spain. At that point, and given previous history, even if Vettel was on the lead, it was hard not to see Alonso as having an extremely good shot at the title. From then on, the only other time Alonso has finished in front of Vettel was in Silverstone. Thanks to a DNF.Kiril Varbanov wrote:More on Alonso's rift with SF while the 'insurance' RAI makes a seat test - http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/11/f ... 2014-seat/
Not to James Allen, who is usually quite fair, but I'm really laughing at the some bad journalism attempts to depict Alonso as the bad guy.
The decision to drop the front pull-rod, if it is true, happened long before Allison came to the team. Allison won't have much input on the initial actual design of the 2014 car, but will have more input on the first update package for the first GP and all in-season development will be his doing.munudeges wrote:Not surprised. I could never see James Allison keeping that on any of his cars.
During the two front pullrod years, the Ferrari has looked much better in race trim than in qualifying trim. If we also consider the McLaren shared a similar trait this year, maybe that convinced Ferrari to abandon that route. Let's also see what sort of nose the 2014 Ferrari will have. Maybe that's dictated the front suspension geometry after all.Crucial_Xtreme wrote:The decision to drop the front pull-rod, if it is true, happened long before Allison came to the team. Allison won't have much input on the initial actual design of the 2014 car, but will have more input on the first update package for the first GP and all in-season development will be his doing.munudeges wrote:Not surprised. I could never see James Allison keeping that on any of his cars.
First of all, that poll is open, public, and ran by a yellow spanish tabloid. I started watching F1 in 94, which made me a Williams fan and an anti-schumi yingyang fanboy. Almost 20 years later, though, I'm not going to be blind again. Do I like Vettel? I can't stand his finger. But look at what he's done with Webber in qualy, where Webber had an essentially immaculate record. It's clear this boy is special.Kiril Varbanov wrote:AS conducted a poll among drivers asking for the best driver. Guess who won - http://motor.as.com/motor/2013/11/27/fo ... 37382.html
Not necessarily at all. If Allison sees something he doesn't like then it's going out. The pressure is on in that team and he cannot afford to wait to make changes. Ferrari don't have time on their side. Whatever though, the pull-rod adventure has been a failure.Crucial_Xtreme wrote:The decision to drop the front pull-rod, if it is true, happened long before Allison came to the team. Allison won't have much input on the initial actual design of the 2014 car....