McLaren as quick as Williams
Toward the end of the Russian GP Fernando ignored his team and decided to switch up his settings and go for broke on one lap ‘just for fun’ run. The result was a lap matching the front running group at the time, about 1.2 secs quicker a lap than his current pace and matching Williams.
Éric the believable looked very happy with that pace stating “without fuel saving we’d save another 50 seconds which we would’ve had at the end of the race. If you look, we are with Williams [without fuel-saving] so it’s the kind of progress we need to go [further]. But that the pace was good and the drivers were happy with the car balance.”
Perhaps he’s too easily pleased? Obviously fuel saving is rather a problem for Honda and clearly points to their continued issues with energy recovery. Still, McLaren probably don’t care as this is the first double points score for the team since Hungary last year and only their second since reuniting with Honda. How the mighty have fallen.
Alonso joined in with the positive vibes declaring:
‘I feel happy, we deserve the points, finally, after some unlucky situations. The pace was very good.
‘We had the fifth-fastest lap of the race so I think sixth position is what we deserve and I’m happy with the way everything is going. We seem more and more competitive every race, so let’s hope from Barcelona and Monaco to get some more points.’
Sixth in Russia ended his run of zero points for the last twelve races.
So this means they can qualify fourth but only finish 10th
McTrulli Honda F1 Team
Hahahaha. From now on forth they shall be know by the name you gave upon them. The Lord has spoken
Or the other way to read it is that a McLaren with everything turned up is as fast as a Williams cruising along saving fuel…
Monaco will be interesting to see if the chassis is as sorted as the claim or if the whole package is lacking.
In other news, Marchionne says:
“I was used to seeing a Ferrari with Michael Schumacher, so it breaks my soul to see a Ferrari that is suffering so much.” (Motorsport.com)
Is it an accident that he names Schumi or are both Vettel and Kimi not safe?
I think it’s psychological pressure to Vettel. Everyone thought with him coming to Ferrari, they’ll relive the Schuey glory days, especially after the 3 wins last year. It took Schumacher 5 years to win the title with Ferrari though, so best wait and see I guess, or are Ferrari not that patient again after Fernando’s tenure? What if Rosberg wins this year’s title and things don’t improve next year for Hamilton? What will happen after 3 title-less years of Seb at Ferrari? Could Lewis and Seb swap seats? And what other silly permutations can we keep talking about till the next race?
Can’t see Seb leaving Ferrari to go anywhere if he doesn’t win a title with them. Seb is about history and records and given his admiration for Schumacher, i believe emulating his achievement is something that is very important to him. It’s win or bust for him at Ferrari and i can see it being a win, but like you mentioned, it took Schumacher 5 years, will it take Seb that long? Given the current flip flopping about with the rules and politics, only time will tell.
Just tell him to keep away from Russian drivers with bull horns for front wings……
He may not want to leave Ferrari but it’s another matter whether Ferrari will want to keep him if he doesn’t win. Alonso keeps ‘selling’ us that he left Ferrari but I’m convinced that he was pushed out.
That was confirmed when before the beginning of this season he was queried what he’d feel if Ferarri won the WDC this year, and he pointed out that he still had a contract with Ferrari for this year… 🙂 Pushed out it is…
I’d suggest it’s unlikely that DR will end up at Ferrari any time soon, mostly due to existing contracts and RBR’s desire to keep him, but Marchionne strikes me as the kind of guy to make it happen to maximise the chances of a WCC but mostly just to mess with Seb and show him who’s signing the cheques.
Well that would give Seb the chance to put right the one blot he has on his record
Marchin’ on is surely a hell of a boss but I guess RB will want a current Ferrari engine then. And I’m not sure if he will go with that.
When Alonso retires, I’ll stop watching F1
So that would be the end of this season then?….. 😉
most probably, but Max looks like achieving great things in the future
You’ll miss the coming of The Next Great Hope!
The mental contamination to their formula one followers minds done by the likes of British SKY is unbelievable.
SKY pretend to be the official broadcaster of formula one in the UK, and are said to become exclusive in the future, they should be a little but more neutral, as they are representing F1, which is a sports that involve drivers of different nationalities, not just British, British and British. Everyone roots for their heroes, that’s not the problem, but keep mentioning how good their heroes are, even when they are not, and not appreciating others when they do good is a whole lot different.
Could you kindly be a bit more specific? It this about Hamilton, Button or Palmer? I guess the first one?
“not just British, British and British” can I be more specific?
Yes, as I said, everyone roots for their heroes and that’s not the problem, Spain, Germany, Holland, “Australia”, but the facts are, nothing beats the shear minds contamination like British SKY does.
In Spain they talk about Alonso/Sainz, in Germany they talk about German drivers SEB/ROS, in Holland they talk about Max etc etc etc etc….
…And salvuborg talks bollocks. I have a strong feeling salvuborg watches F1 on an iffy streaming site. His opinion is worth as much as he pays to watch the races.