2017 Mclaren F1 Team - Honda

[Raleigh]

Another option is Alonso takes a year out, does the Indy 500 again, Le Mans, perhaps a season in endurance racing or Indycar.

2018, McLaren contract with options, returns if Honda is good.

[diffuser]

On sky, I think it was sky, he said "He didn't know where he was going. It was in F1."

It was said plainly and clearly.

I beleive him.

[Vasconia]

I think it's pretty clear Fernando is going to join Mercedes. They have signed Bottas for only 1 year so they could evaluate him, and have the option to sign Alonso if Bottas underperformed. Bottas is not able to push Hamilton as much as Rosberg did. He's also making many mistakes (bad start in Spain, dive bomb in Canada, dive bomb in Baku). I am sure Mercedes is happy to sign Alonso. And as much as I'd wish he stayed at McLaren, I think he deserves a title winning car, and the Merc will be one guaranteed.

It will also spice things up at Mercedes a lot. No matter what promises they would make, they would use their dirty tactics to win the title. I can't wait to see that.

I dont think that Mercedes is so crazy to have Alonso and Hamilton in the same team. Dont get me wrong, I love to see it, but Ferrari and Vettel would be happy to see it because there will be a war inside the team, for sure.

[Vasconia]

That would be the fail of the century, as Ferrari could easily slide down just as fast again and will be out of the podium for the coming 3 seasons.
Imagine Alonso joining once again, and in 2018, Button steps into the Mclaren that ditched the Honda, and got in a Merc engine -where did we see that before,
and then become WDC again, and WCC for Mclaren. Where did that happen again? ah yes, with JB, after the honda engine was replaced with a Mercedes one, lol.

If Alonso leaves Mclaren the ONLY smart move for him would be to go to Mercedes - where he REALLY should have went the MOMENT Rosberg said 'scr*w you guys, im going home'.

I agree...what we see from Ferrari now is James Allison legacy....and its faiding away already.

Vettel pushed Hamilton very hard in Canada(at least in qualy), a track were Mercedes and Hamilton has slayed everybody. In Bakú it seems that there was a tyre temperature issue but during the race Vettel looked fast even running with an old PU. It has to be more with Mercedes doing things better than Ferrari loosing performance.

[etusch]

I just watch this and want to share. Sorry if it already seen
https://youtu.be/IRGDNW61Bvs

[Andres125sx]

I'm pretty sure nobody is going to pay the amount the Alonso currently makes.

Santander finish contract with Ferrari this year, so as Spanish sponsor they might come behind Alonso.

So it could happen that Ferrari decides to offer him a place to conservate the sponsor or other team might benefit of that extra money from Santander and pay for his salary.

How happy would be Zack if Santander was signing for Mclaren again

Ok, didn't know that. I have a feeling that Alonso won't stay because of the remarks he made last weekend. He seemed pretty confident for next year and said that there is more going on than many think, he said that McLaren is a perfect place for Sainz to become world champion (over 5 years) and Alonso said that his renewed positivity is related to his future in the sport. I'm pretty sure he's gone, especially because he said that the engine wasn't a factor in his decision.

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... o-positive

Alonso being positive just after he test the upgraded PU can´t be a coincidence. What if he liked the new PU and he´s just playing mind games with the media?

That wouldn´t be a surprise to me

[Andres125sx]

My dream team for Ferrari would be:

Still ran by Arrivabene but let's add Flavio Briatore (say what?!)
Adrian Newey with a blank cheque.
Hamilton as a racing driver
Verstappen as a racing driver

It would be an amazing pairing.

As an Alonso fan, I´d love to see both Lewis and Max at Ferrari, two rivals discarded


Sorry but I find it fun when I read people talking about the bad decision Alonso made when leaving Ferrari, when they´re exactly the same they were when he was there, the eternal second team who can only fight for some victory from time to time, wich is the reason he left.

A competitive Ferrari at the start of the season, wich slowly becomes uncompetitive as the season goes on, is anything but a surprise

[etusch]

Alonso being positive just after he test the upgraded PU can´t be a coincidence. What if he liked the new PU and he´s just playing mind games with the media?

That wouldn´t be a surprise to me

I think he says what he felt. I remember last year that he said after Honda updates he can not feel difference. but Everybody seen that car was performing better after updates.
Alonso only can feel it when he could overtake someone at straights in normal conditions or someone can not overtake him at straights.
When he see competitive lap times he will be pleased but if I am not wrong they could not push with the PU yet

[Big Mangalhit]

My dream team for Ferrari would be:

Still ran by Arrivabene but let's add Flavio Briatore (say what?!)
Adrian Newey with a blank cheque.
Hamilton as a racing driver
Verstappen as a racing driver

It would be an amazing pairing.

As an Alonso fan, I´d love to see both Lewis and Max at Ferrari, two rivals discarded


Sorry but I find it fun when I read people talking about the bad decision Alonso made when leaving Ferrari, when they´re exactly the same they were when he was there, the eternal second team who can only fight for some victory from time to time, wich is the reason he left.

A competitive Ferrari at the start of the season, wich slowly becomes uncompetitive as the season goes on, is anything but a surprise

Indeed he really solved that problem, no more second place for him.

I wonder tho if he could be WDC in Vettel's seat. I mean VET is still first. This year car is very very close to the Mercedes and the third car is far away. Kimi is not a problem. Alonso is notorious to challenge until last race even in worse cars so I do wonder if he could make it WDC in Vet's seat. One thing is certain if Vettel is WDC this year Alonso might as well never again decide any career move himself

[ZakB]

I would advise Alonso not to go to Ferrari, because I highly doubt that they can follow the development rate of Mercedes. I already seem them slowly slipping away and I even believe that Red Bull has already passed them.

[Vasconia]

My dream team for Ferrari would be:

Still ran by Arrivabene but let's add Flavio Briatore (say what?!)
Adrian Newey with a blank cheque.
Hamilton as a racing driver
Verstappen as a racing driver

It would be an amazing pairing.

As an Alonso fan, I´d love to see both Lewis and Max at Ferrari, two rivals discarded


Sorry but I find it fun when I read people talking about the bad decision Alonso made when leaving Ferrari, when they´re exactly the same they were when he was there, the eternal second team who can only fight for some victory from time to time, wich is the reason he left.

A competitive Ferrari at the start of the season, wich slowly becomes uncompetitive as the season goes on, is anything but a surprise

One bad qualy and people are already talking about doom and despair in Ferrari. Seriously...

Please, lets wait for a full normal weekend where Ferrari really shows signs of loosing performance against Mercedes, also being concious if the track is clearly better for Mercedes or Ferrari.

Anway, what Ferrari has achieved in those three years is much more than what McLaren has achieved. At least one team is not humiliating its drivers.

But I agree that Alonso needed to move from Ferrari. The atmosphere was not good and he needed a new motivation. The result is a disaster but its easy to judge it now.

[diffuser]

One bad qualy and people are already talking about doom and despair in Ferrari. Seriously...

Please, lets wait for a full normal weekend where Ferrari really shows signs of loosing performance against Mercedes, also being concious if the track is clearly better for Mercedes or Ferrari.

Anway, what Ferrari has achieved in those three years is much more than what McLaren has achieved. At least one team is not humiliating its drivers.

But I agree that Alonso needed to move from Ferrari. The atmosphere was not good and he needed a new motivation. The result is a disaster but its easy to judge it now.

Off topic but they have a better chassis than Merc. Ferrari has more mechanical grip. Merc still has the better PU and Driver.

[Andres125sx]

My dream team for Ferrari would be:

Still ran by Arrivabene but let's add Flavio Briatore (say what?!)
Adrian Newey with a blank cheque.
Hamilton as a racing driver
Verstappen as a racing driver

It would be an amazing pairing.

As an Alonso fan, I´d love to see both Lewis and Max at Ferrari, two rivals discarded


Sorry but I find it fun when I read people talking about the bad decision Alonso made when leaving Ferrari, when they´re exactly the same they were when he was there, the eternal second team who can only fight for some victory from time to time, wich is the reason he left.

A competitive Ferrari at the start of the season, wich slowly becomes uncompetitive as the season goes on, is anything but a surprise

One bad qualy and people are already talking about doom and despair in Ferrari. Seriously...

One bad qualy is when you´re 3-4 tenths off the pole, half a second as much, due to poor settings, temperatures not matching your ideal window, some driver mistake, etc, not 1.1 and 1.3 seconds off the pole

[Big Mangalhit]

I would advise Alonso not to go to Ferrari, because I highly doubt that they can follow the development rate of Mercedes. I already seem them slowly slipping away and I even believe that Red Bull has already passed them.

I strongly disagree. Ferrari and Mercedes are so close in pace that drivers are making all the difference, with Vettel clearly faster than Bottas and Hamilton clearly faster than Kimi. Ferrari leads the WDC and Mercedes the WCC.

As for development Ferrari can be better than Mercedes has they were just this winter because last year they were so far behind but they outdevelped Mercedes and are now on par, they even leapfrogged RB on the process. So who knows how the season will pan out, maybe at the moment Mercedes has a slight advantage that can be faded with the new rumoured upgrade on Ferrari PU. As for the claim the RB is ahead that I think is just plain ludicrous, They are finishing races so far behind even on tracks with heavy reliance on chassis like monaco which they were fastest last year and this year the reds dominated. Before you claim it is all PU Renault and Toro Rosso would both be ahead of Haas if not for Palmer.

To conclude I think a change to Ferrari would beneficial for Alonso (in terms of going to a faster car only, maybe he would be less happy i dunno about that) because usually when the rules are static from year to year the pecking order tends to be static as well. So I expect Mclaren to still struggle next year even tho I believe they will leapfrog the midfield they will be just ahead of those and not yet challenging for wins while even if Ferrari trails the mercedes they will still be fighting for the odd win.

All in all I think not even Alonso has a clue what will he do next, nor does Zak for that matter.

[Andres125sx]

My dream team for Ferrari would be:

Still ran by Arrivabene but let's add Flavio Briatore (say what?!)
Adrian Newey with a blank cheque.
Hamilton as a racing driver
Verstappen as a racing driver

It would be an amazing pairing.

As an Alonso fan, I´d love to see both Lewis and Max at Ferrari, two rivals discarded


Sorry but I find it fun when I read people talking about the bad decision Alonso made when leaving Ferrari, when they´re exactly the same they were when he was there, the eternal second team who can only fight for some victory from time to time, wich is the reason he left.

A competitive Ferrari at the start of the season, wich slowly becomes uncompetitive as the season goes on, is anything but a surprise

Indeed he really solved that problem, no more second place for him.

He said himself more than once he does not care if fighting for 2nd or 12th, so even when that sarcastic statement is pretty usual on internet, three years after his departure from Ferrari, Ferrari continue proving him right season after season.

Yes Vettel is still the leader of the WDC, as Alonso was several of his 5 seasons in red. People have short memories. But there is a trend in last two GPs wich is far from new in Ferrari, their impresive start of the season was just that, an impresive start of the season wich will evaporate as the season goes on

I really hope I´m wrong and we can see some real battle for the title instead of another walk in the park for Mercedes, but I´m afraid I´m not