Intriguing.

The Merc is a highly specialized aerodynamic package, when leading from the front in clean air it’s very efficient, but clearly the aero doesn’t behave anywhere near as well when the Merc is in the dirty air flowing from the Ferrari in front.

However, the solution is ingenious. Merc have gone down the radical route of attaching a SEAT hatchback to the front wing, thereby unsettling the aero flow over the car.

i think Alonso is leaving Mclaren at the end of the year. I presume Honda no longer have to pay his wages and part of the exit deal is toalow them to supply Sauber. But hey ho what do I know

My word – they’ve thrown the a whole warehouse full of kitchen sinks at that Merc! 😯

Alonso wasn’t staying at McLaren – not a chance. I think Renault is his only real option. Why would Ferrari take him when thinks are running smoothly. He’s a disruptive character.

Jordan (I know) seems to think vettel is off to merc so Ferrari would need a #1 driver. Alonso has got to go back to one of his previous teams, so why not them? Unless he really burned his bridges

I’ve never understood why the commentators are so adamant that he won’t be returning to Ferrari considering he went back to McLaren! 🙂

He also went back to Renault too so going a full ciricle.. well actually if he went to Torro rosso , that would be complete!

He will got where he thinks he can win.

cheekymonkey888 – Member
i think Alonso is leaving Mclaren at the end of the year. I presume Honda no longer have to pay his wages and part of the exit deal is toalow them to supply Sauber. But hey ho what do I know

POSTED 11 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

I don’t know. What do you know and just as importantly, how do you know whatever it is concerning Alonso? Are you his agent? Masseur? Confidante? Lover?

He will got where he thinks he can win.

He will go anywhere they will have him.

He’s expensive.

He’s not a team player.

You got me.. I am Aussiegrit and I’m not his Massa

He will go anywhere they will have him.

Given that he’s still widely regarded as the best driver of the current crop, that’ll be most of the teams then.

And given that it took just 12 mins of FP1 for his latest Honda to blow up I reckon his price will be tumbling. He’ll be celebrating seeing the chequered flag this year.

With Honda embarrassing doesn’t really cover it. It’s just a pathetic effort.

And if Vettel is going to Merc, where is Lewis going? A few seasons with Ferrari would book-end his career nicely.

He is regarded by engineers and team bosses as a very good driver.
Regularly commentators talk of him being up there with other top drivers, so I reckon he can still command a top slot.

When he has driven crap cars he regularly finished higher up than expected (look what he did in that crap Ferrari he had a few years ago) and out raced his team mates in the same car.

So I would imagine lots of top teams would want him in a seat.

From Sky’s FP1 feed…

“Fernando Alonso has left the Circuit de Catalunya and returned to his hotel.

Sky F1 asked his manager if the Spaniard will return for Practice Two and got the reply “I hope so”.

We will see…”

He’s just tweeted pics of himself playing tennis at the hotel, so I guess FP2 depends on whether the match goes to 5 sets 😉

I’ve completely lost interest with what’s happening at the front of the grid – I’m solely concerned with the goings on at McLaren. Whatever their mechanical troubles right now, I reckon they’re absolutely dominating the F1 social media feed.

PJM1974 – Member
I’ve completely lost interest with what’s happening at the front of the grid – I’m solely concerned with the goings on at McLaren. Whatever their mechanical troubles right now, I reckon they’re absolutely dominating the F1 social media feed.

It has been quite fascinating to watch.

Sauber must be shitting bricks at this point.

He is regarded by engineers and team bosses as a very good driver.

I am in no doubt of his talent.

But…

He has been closely implicated in two of the biggest scandals of recent F1 and got away with it; dropping the team in the crap instead. That’s not great on your cv.

His recent history is going to a team to turn them around and doing nothing of the sort. If anything they get worse as they move into orbit around his ego.

“Fernando is faster than you”

I bet Massa still laughs when he laps him these days.

Alonso is back for FP2, how many laps can Honda do this time?

I bet Massa still laughs when he laps him these days.

Really a 2nd rate driver plodding around mid-table, against a double world champion?

Yes.

So he will take all the little victories he can.

“Fernando ees no longer faster than me….”

Unless we see the data the team bosses see we are only really guessing at how good/bad drivers are.

Has there ever been a worse engine than the current Honda? I’m struggling to think of one!

Lamborghini liked to go up in flames a lot, usually got to at least the 3rd corner though

Has there ever been a worse engine than the current Honda?

Life Racing Engines

Good read that! Yes, it’s fair to say that Life Racing was worse lol 🙂

Porsche supplied Footwork with engines in 1990/91? (can’t remember) they were really woeful, I think they rarely qualified at all. and never finished a race

Alonso might even be smiling after this! Good to see!

By ‘eck! 7th for Alonso! 😯

Bit late to the party, but just saw my first F1 for the season. Pink car! 😯

Love the pink!

Amazing stuff from Alonso, that guy can be so electrifying!

Nicely poised for tomorrow, think HAM will get it but should be interesting at the start.

By ‘eck! 7th for Alonso! 😯

He was really hustling that thing wasn’t he 😀

Guessing he just turned the engine up full and let it choose whether to blow up or not. A show for his home fans before he goes to conquer America!

Guessing he just turned the engine up full and let it choose whether to blow up or not.

The garage were smiling so maybe not? …… lets hope.

The odds on the McLaren blowing up on the formation lap have just been slashed

Alonso is outstanding. He will easily get a drive next year.

I don’t reckon Alonso will have an engine beyond lap 14.

I’d say lap 14 is optimistic

I’ve actually got a little theory about the Honda engine’s troubles.

When they run it on low power mode (lean fuelling/retarded ignition etc) it sets up vibrations in the engine that rattle it to bits eventually. When they turn it up to full power it settles down and runs reasonably as designed, it’s then we see results like P7. Maybe the engineers focused on it’s performance at full chat and forgot to ensure it worked in fuel-saving mode, that’s now the nub of their issues. When Alonso grabs it by the scruff of the neck and drives flat-out it works but as soon as they turn it down to save the engine or save fuel it rattles away to itself again. This could be exacerbation any other issues in their design too.

Just a theory mind.

Possibly something in that but they’ve been reasonably open about the issues up to now and that hasn’t been mentioned. I suspect that their stress analysis and dyno testing just isn’t correlating well to the track so they’re never really sure what will happen. That seems like an area that Merc could help them with.

When they run it on low power mode (lean fuelling/retarded ignition etc) it sets up vibrations in the engine that rattle it to bits eventually

No, I think the vibration problem occurs when they try to run it at full power, so I guess it’s setting up harmonics at high revs that are damaging other components. Apparently, they did a lot of test bench work last year using single cylinder prototypes to develop the internal combustion engine. They thought that was successful and the complete engine was a major improvement when tested on the dyno. However, once they installed it in the car, things kept breaking whenever they tried to run it at full power. Alonso’s P7 suggests that they have sorted out some of the problems and managed to turn up the power a bit, and also that the car itself is reasonably competitive. If they have managed to sort out the vibration issues, then they should be able to focus on power and efficiency. They seem to have the fourth fastest car now, so it’s not impossible that they are faster than Red Bull by the end of the year. If that’s the case, Alonso might decide he’s better to stay put than gamble on Renault or Ferrari. Unlikely, for sure, but not impossible given that P7.

I can remember seasons where a team were bedding something new in that failed all over the place – only for it to be sorted and spectacular a year later. Active suspensions, semi-auto / flappy paddle gear boxes.