I wasn't referring to being more competitive. There's a stark contrast between how the team was in the years from 2012 to 2014 and how it is now. It's hard to pin point as outsiders of course, but I'd say the management and staff changes were the right ones. I don't want to turn this into a Ferrari specific post, but I did just recently post in another topic that I'm very impressed by how Vettel handled himself at Monza post race. While Arrivabene was clearly very unhappy and critical towards his own team, Vettel said all the right things and carried the right state-of-mind post race. Instead of adding negative energy over losing the lead in the WDC and losing at the Italians most important race of the year - their home turf - he showed himself as rather upbeat and positive... one even got the feeling Vettel almost rallied the team into taking this defeat and turn it into something positive and motivating for the next coming races.
It was even picked up by AMuS:
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 31003.html
AMuS wrote:Sebastian Vettel hat ein gutes Gespür dafür, was die Ferrari-Seele braucht. Auf dem Podium sorgte er mit seinen italienischen Worten für Jubelstürme bei den Tifosi. Man konnte fast das Gefühl bekommen, dass der Heppenheimer das Rennen gerade gewonnen hat. Doch das Gegenteil war der Fall: Mercedes feierte auf feindlichem Territorium einen überlegenen Doppelsieg. Und zu allem Überfluss nahm Lewis Hamilton seinem Rivalen aus Heppenheim auch noch die Führung in der WM-Wertung ab.
...
Während Konzernboss Sergio Marchionne und Teamchef Maurizio Arrivabene unisono das Versagen der eigenen Mannschaft kritisierten, versuchte Vettel gute Stimmung zu verbreiten. Hier sieht man, wer der wahre Anführer bei der Scuderia ist. Die Worte von Vettel klangen, wie eine Motivationsrede an das eigene Team: „Ich weiß, dass die Leute morgen mit noch mehr Ehrgeiz ins Büro kommen. Wir hatten eine gute Saison, aber wir sind noch lange nicht am Ziel. Ferrari muss in allen Bereichen die Nummer 1 sein. Mercedes macht uns das Leben schwer. Aber es ist ein langer Weg.“
Those that don't understand German, it roughly translates to that 'while Sergio Marchionne and Arrivabene were very critical towards their own team, Vettel tried to spread a good mood and that he conducted himself like the true leader of Ferrari.'. The article goes on to say that his speeches sounded like a motivation speech directed at his own team. He later said that "he knows that tomorrow everyone will come with more ehrgeiz and ambition to the office. They've had a good season so far, but it's not over yet. They're not number 1 in all areas, Mercedes is making their lifes difficult and it's gonna be a long road [a long fight; e.g. it's not over yet]".
Now before this turns into a Alonso did this and that too, or Vettel vs. Alonso etc, lets just say that both drivers are exceptional at what they do in different ways and Vettel is obviously in a very different state of mind, already having won 4 titles and being quite a bit younger than Alonso. He can afford to be more relaxed. If he wins or doesn't win another championship with Ferrari, he will still go down as one of the most successful drivers of F1. My point is merely that Vettel, since his arrival at Ferrari, has been ticking the right boxes. He's usually quite upbeat, he's intelligent and highly diplomatic, off the track he's extremely likeable (I'm saying this as a non-Vettel supporter).
In the years from 2010 to 2012, one could see the difference between Button and Hamilton. Button was always upbeat, positive, relaxed, Lewis more frustrated and clearly not happy, not happy with the team, not happy with his surroundings etc. A driver that gets on well with his team, goes the extra mile by showing up at the factory, says the right things etc, captivates more energy and motivation from his team to the point, they'd give it their all and very best. A poisonous relationship is never good, which brings me to Alonso, McLaren and Honda.
What McLaren-Honda needs, more than anything, is
unity. For them to act as one-team, one entity - the "works-team" they are. One hand washes the other. Alonso is the "face" - the driver who turns what the team has brought together into results. He is also the teams voice. People, the team, and that does also include Honda, need to believe in him and his trust into the team. Calling the engine a GP2 engine etc is like a kick in the teeth for the engineers who have worked hard to get that thing working in the first place. The negativity also includes team McLaren too. Honda need to believe that their work, commitment and progress are appreciated. I can assure you, they don't want a driver or team who has been publicly bashing them for the past 2.5 seasons in a humiliating way to win with their package (if they ever get it working). These are just many signs of what is going wrong there. It's not a harmonic relationship and I'm doubtful it ever was. But if they want to succeed, they need to believe in each other and stand there as one team. And that also includes the driver.
We all get that Alonso is frustrated. But maybe, just maybe, his frustrations are carrying over to the team a little too much. The approach "all or nothing" has been wrong from the beginning. Perhaps with more moderate targets, there would have been less desperation leading to more errors, wrong design choices, going for extremes when a more analytical and progressive approach might have been more controllable. Mercedes didn't start winning in a day either. They had difficult years from 2010 and onwards, but yet, the team made small iterative improvements season after season until finally being quite competitive in 2013. McLaren and Alonso need to do some rethinking in their expectations and maybe concede that their expectations and demands have perhaps lead to unlikely, unrealistic targets and caused more friction and errors by Honda IMO.
