Briatore slamming Hamilton again...yawn

[axle]

Good grief, how many times does Briatore have to slam McLaren and Hamilton in the press whilst simultainiously praising Alonso??!!

Yes yes there's more to the goings on behind the scenes than us mere mortals can know (ie what was in FA's contract at McLaren)...but talk about beating a dead horse.

He's got his baby back, be happy and stop whining about last year! Is FA's loyalty to Renault so slight that he's doing all the PR ass kissing he can to stop FA going to Ferrari??

Am I alone in finding his repeated goings on about the subject a bit silly/old?

[Roland Ehnström]

Yes, he's being very silly, but that's Flavio...

[Spencifer_Murphy]

People tend to resort to a war of words when they feel threatened.

End of the day, lets forget the whole preferable treatment, spygate, issues - a rookie matched a double world champ who subsequently throws all his toys out of the pram. And without the supposed preferable treatment, he would have been pretty damn close.

Renault know now that they need to mollycoddle Fernando. (2006's "I feel alone" and ALL of 2007 prove that) - why else would they have let Flavio's beloved Heikki go? He's too much of a risk, they cannot afford for Heikki to be too quick alongside Alonso.

All these words from Flavio are purely to help make Fernando feel loved back at Renault.

On the plus side its working - Fernando seems really happy there from any pics and/or vids I've seen. And I hope it stays that way, because he's a much more likeable guys when he's happy, and I think that translates into his driving.

[dumrick]

If Alonso needs to be a** kissed that way to be happy...

[HKS]

People tend to resort to a war of words when they feel threatened.

End of the day, lets forget the whole preferable treatment, spygate, issues - a rookie matched a double world champ who subsequently throws all his toys out of the pram. And without the supposed preferable treatment, he would have been pretty damn close.

Nothing more can be from a Hamilton fan.

Truly speaking, it's very obvious. If a British team has a Brit driver and a Spaniard, it team mechanics, crew and everyone would support the Brit than the Spaniard.

Coming back to the topic. Aren't we aware of Flavio's zany behavior?

[mcdenife]

Truly speaking, it's very obvious. If a British team has a Brit driver and a Spaniard, it team mechanics, crew and everyone would support the Brit than the Spaniard.

You obviously dont know mclaren. If it was based on nationality, then they would have favoured Coulthard over Hakkinnen or Raikonnen.
Besides if by 'favouring' you mean being given equal status to a 2 time world champ, then fine Hamilton was favoured. But hasnt this always been the Mclaren ethos?

[Conceptual]

I think that Flavi-Flav is just doing what he does best, causing drama.

In the end, we are going to see Fernando being lapped by Hamilton on Sunday, and I just hope that the young sophmore has more class than to flip his old team-mate the bird as he passes.

Well, maybe he could take a page from Nando's book, and wave his fist and scream at the slower backmarker and be indignant that the Renault didnt immediately pull over for the far superior McLaren.

It is a soap opera, but that is F1, right?

Chris

[Skunk0001]

why else would they have let Flavio's beloved Heikki go? He's too much of a risk, they cannot afford for Heikki to be too quick alongside Alonso.

Flav aint stupid, nobody at Reno are going to win much this year, so from a 'drivers manager' point of view it makes more sense (and money) for him to have one of his guys in a winning car.

He has said before if he quit F1 he wouldnt miss it at all, which imo says hes in F1 for the money, and Heikki at McLaren will help deliver that. I wonder what Flav's cut of the 'deal' was....Or how much of the 'win bonus' he shares...

Besides if by 'favouring' you mean being given equal status to a 2 time world champ, then fine Hamilton was favoured. But hasnt this always been the Mclaren ethos?

Coulthard would disagree with that...


Either way, I like the 'trash-talk' gives me something to read at work.

[Tom]

From his former collegues and employees accounts it sounds like Flav know little to f-all about F1 anyway, what I've heard suggests he doesn't know the gearbox from the nose-cone and frankly he doesn't need to. Flav was employed by Benetton to 'big-up' their team, arrange the sponsorship nicely and make the damn thing look good. He is very good at that and hasn't stopped in 20 years. Let him talk to the press and let his team talk on the track.

[P_O_L]

flav is the best team boss in F1 and at least an honest one.

""we werent racing kimi, we were racing fernando"" were ron dennis words 2 races before the end of the championship. Combine that with jerez 97 and melbourne 98, wich was a blatanta team order as the world has ever seen, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Flav is with us, the fans. dennis is with nobody.

[axle]

flav is the best team boss in F1 and at least an honest one.

""we werent racing kimi, we were racing fernando"" were ron dennis words 2 races before the end of the championship. Combine that with jerez 97 and melbourne 98, wich was a blatanta team order as the world has ever seen, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Flav is with us, the fans. dennis is with nobody.

What a surprise to see you post in this thread. With 2 races to go I think you can safely say Alonso had made his bed and wasn't going to be staying at McLaren what with his blackmailing etc.

Flavio is desperate to kiss FA's arse as he brought Renault 2 WC's...so praise FA don't just keep going on about the team-mate that was given equal status/machinary and finished the season on equal points. FA could have risen to the challenge etc but chose to do silly things like in Hungary. The other "team order" snippets you love to refer to have been explained away numerous times on here and pale in comparison to Ferrari's and next years Renault (Piquet might as well not bother turning up as he won't be allowed near FA).

[Project Four]

"we werent racing kimi, we were racing fernando"" were ron dennis words 2 races before the end of the championship. Combine that with jerez 97 and melbourne 98, wich was a blatanta team order as the world has ever seen, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Team order's have been around since the start of F1 and even though banned are impossible to police. All teams do it and some more than others especially the one you seem never to mention in you rants against only one team. I would bring your attention to comment from Niki Lauda in 2002, certainly someone whom is not Ron Dennis best friend:-

"If team orders are going to be imposed in such a stupid way as Ferrari did then yes, I think it has damaged F1... the performance of the Ferrari drivers as Indy was particular silly and that was one of the low points of the year....when you look as the period when Williams and McLaren were dominating F1, the teams used to let their drivers race their asses off against one another...at least we still had fun racing even though it was with the domination of one team"

And last year this is exactly what McLaren did again with Alonso and Hamilton and yes if that had played the Ferrari way then Alonso would have been world champion, there would have been no spy-gate and maybe you would have been happy.

[Conceptual]

"we werent racing kimi, we were racing fernando"" were ron dennis words 2 races before the end of the championship. Combine that with jerez 97 and melbourne 98, wich was a blatanta team order as the world has ever seen, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Team order's have been around since the start of F1 and even though banned are impossible to police. All teams do it and some more than others especially the one you seem never to mention in you rants against only one team. I would bring your attention to comment from Niki Lauda in 2002, certainly someone whom is not Ron Dennis best friend:-

"If team orders are going to be imposed in such a stupid way as Ferrari did then yes, I think it has damaged F1... the performance of the Ferrari drivers as Indy was particular silly and that was one of the low points of the year....when you look as the period when Williams and McLaren were dominating F1, the teams used to let their drivers race their asses off against one another...at least we still had fun racing even though it was with the domination of one team"

And last year this is exactly what McLaren did again with Alonso and Hamilton and yes if that had played the Ferrari way then Alonso would have been world champion, there would have been no spy-gate and maybe you would have been happy.

I find that there are people that complain for a living just to justify their own existance. Those same people have the absolute ability to change what they are complaining about, but refuse to simply to continue justifying their continued existance...

Unfortunately, P_O_S... I mean P_O_L seems to fit into this catergory.

Chris

[HKS]

You obviously dont know mclaren. If it was based on nationality, then they would have favoured Coulthard over Hakkinnen or Raikonnen.
Besides if by 'favouring' you mean being given equal status to a 2 time world champ, then fine Hamilton was favoured. But hasnt this always been the Mclaren ethos?

I have one very simple question which remains a mystery. When Lewis admitted the fact that it was his fault at Hungary as he didn't obey the team orders, why didn't Ron appeal to get back Fernando his pole position? Whereas he had appealed to FIA to reconsider their decision for penalizing Mclaren.

And last but not the least what does this quote prove "We weren't racing Kimi, we were racing Fernando".

[Rob W]

As much as I disagree with the headline of the PlanetF1 article which says "Hamilton's ego cost McLaren title" I think Briatore made a couple of pretty astute points.

I think he is right in saying that, McLaren fought hammer and tongs to get Alonso in to their team, and then essentially shot themselves in the foot by creating/growing an environment which wasn't trusting, had secrets, aired laundry publicly etc. If Briatore is to be believed they didn't always offer Alonso the same opportunities as Hamilton either.

McLaren, but for a couple of simple, tiny efforts here and there could have had the glory of a driver's champion (in either driver). They buggered it up completely themselves by not managing the situation better. And, from logic point of view, it would have been better to swing things Alonso's way and give Hamilton a less stressful intro to F1 with the aim of a long career.

I can't wait to see how each driver shapes up this year and, more importantly if any obvious grumbles come out regarding Lewis vs Heikki. I very much doubt Heikki entered F1 to be a support driver so we'll have to see how he shines in a front-running car.

R