United Autosports, Daytona, 2018

Alonso relished Daytona challenge despite “scary” brake failure

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso was satisfied with his run in the Daytona 24 Hours despite a brake failure and other setbacks which left him 38th at the flag.

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Thanks to everyone who entered this weekend’s Caption Competition featuring Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Jimmie Johnson. The winner was @Wessel-v1:

Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, Jimmie Johnson, 2018

Lando’s idea of a rap battle has yet to pick up some steam.
@Wessel-v1

And an honourable mention goes to @Doublestuffpenguin for being the only person to claim to have been on the rollercoaster in the photograph

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Snapshot

Carlos Sainz Jnr, Renault, Rallye Mote Carlo, 2018
Carlos Sainz Jnr, Renault, Rallye Mote Carlo, 2018

Carlos Sainz Jnr drove a 13-kilometre stage on the Monte-Carlo rally yesterday in one of the event’s course cars.

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On this day in F1

  • The Jacarepagua circuit held the Brazilian Grand Prix for the first time on this day 40 years ago. Carlos Reutemann denied Emerson Fittipaldi what would have been a dream home win in his own car, though the pair were almost 50 seconds apart at the flag

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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73 comments on “Alonso relished Daytona challenge despite “scary” brake failure”

  1. Honda made Honda look bad. They really did everything they could to make themselves look bad.

    On the other hand, Red Bull made Renault look bad over and over again. They’ve badmouthed them so many times, it almost left them without an engine at all.

    1. Was thinking the exact same thing.

      Marko likes to talk cheap.

    2. I think renault made themselves look bad as well. Bad reliability, poor performance and then they took the whole year before introducing their first updates. Update which was not even worth using! Red bull gets a lot of bad press but in reality they had every reason to be upset with renault’s perf… let’s call it absence of performance.

      1. And there was no ‘absence of performanca’ at Honda?

        The point is that Dr Kettle calls Pot Alonso black.

      2. IIRC Redbull won some races with a Renault engine, and earned a good amount of podiums. McLaren on the other hand won absolutely nothing with the Honda engines.

        If the Renault engines are so bad Redbull should simply switch to Merc, Ferrari or Honda.

      3. Let’s just forget all that off throttle blowing and clever exhaust mapping shall we @socksolid?

        1. Do you think the downforce was generated by the renault engine or the red bull chassis?

          1. with the off throttle blowing and exhaust mapping it was very much the engine TOGETHER with the chassis that used those features @socksolid. IT was about cooperation. Something that Red Bull is now very unlikely to get from the manufacturer after they failed to work together as partners.

          2. @bascb
            There is no proof of red bull ever not working with their engine manufacturer. Red bull wanted to work with renault. But renault did nothing. I have no idea how it is red bull’s failure to cooperate if renault does nothing to develop their engine and throws a tantrum when their factory team publicly discloses that.

            I hope people are not this gullible. How red bull handled renault’s absence is nothing more or less than a convenient excuse for ferrari and mercedes to not sell engines to them. It is amazing people buy it so easily. In reality if mercedes sold their factory f1 team and dropped back down to being just engine manufacturer (no chance of ferrari doing that) the red bull and mclaren teams would be the first ones they’d to talk to. They’d be willing to shell tens of millions to get either one of them. Almost begging to get them to use their engines. Neither has good engines now so it would be instant win-win for both sides.

            But now when it benefits mercedes to not sell engines to red bull they just say that because red bull were naughty towards renault blah blah blah they’d never sell engines to them.

          3. How did Renault do nothing when they developed the engine mapping to make those fancy exhaust modes work in the first place @socksolid? Red Bull has been bashing their engine even while winning championships, they stepped up critisizing it since before the first tests in 2014 and they let that escalate as bad as it has, where they had to sign into contract that they would not do that anymore as one of the clauses on which Renault was willing to supply them.

            the rest htere – woulda, coulda, shoulda.

          4. Go read the Newey book @socksolid and come back to me.

          5. @bascb
            Red bull has only been saying the truth. I mean if red bull where wrong about renault’s performance then WHY ON EARTH did fia grant special permission to renault to develop their engines when others were not:
            https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/01/no-equalising-of-engines-for-2010/

            Renault has been down on power almost every reason. In 2015 renault went so far as to not do anything the whole year. I still can’t quite get it why the red bull are the bad guy here. They were doing their hardest to make the best car. They respected their contract with renault but they both knew red bull would be winning championships with mercedes. All the while renault was doing nothing.

            And the fact is (and it is really a fact) that the renault engine after 2014 especially has been totally uncompetitive. Those wins red bull has gotten is because of their chassis. I can’t imagine what kind of mental gymnastics it takes to credit renault for it. I mean without an engine at all red bull would have needed their drivers to push their cars so surely it is all renault those wins?

            I have no idea why you keep going on about blown diffusers. It is just irrelevant. Red bull chassis makes the downforce. Had red bull had mercedes engines they would have still made that downforce and won all the races. Probably with even bigger margins. But what do I know. Whoever earns to win in f1 it can’t be red bull, right?

    3. Alonso has been a class act on Honda comparing to what Red Bull said/did about Renault.

      1. Alonso has been far worse. Did redbull drivers call the honda engine a gp2 engine? Did either of the red bull drivers say they have never raced with less power? At every other race? While honda was working as hard as they could. While renault was thinking of quitting.

        Selective memory…

        When red bull was saying truths about renault the renault engine was not getting any updates despite being down on everything. I mean if you sign a contract and the other party does nothing like renault did in 2015… Renault did not do their part. But that is red bull’s fault? The naughty red bull dare to point out negative facts. How dare they. sigh

        I mean I get it. Lots of people here have blind hatred towards red bull and put blame on them for everything while at the same time alonso’s treatment of honda is a “class act”. When red bull designs a car that has bending wings they are cheaters. When mercedes burns oil to bypass the fuel regs they are genius. When christian horner says renault is doing bad job and every fact supports it they are whiners. When alonso says he has never raced with less power it is a class act. When ferrari and mercedes do their hardest so they can sell the worst performing engines to their competitors it just them being competitive. But when red bull wants to switch engines they greedy and …generally unpleasant.

    4. Agree. That’s why I find it hilarious that Marko out of all people is pointing the finger at Alonso. Horner was trashing Renault in 2014, back when they won 3 races and still had the 2nd best power unit on the grid. I’d love to see Red Bull switch to Honda power in 2019… the look on Marko’s face after the constant Honda bashing from Max will be a great laugh.

      1. Haha..exactly what I was going to say.

        I sincerely hope Red Bull are stuck with a Honda PU come 2019. That in itself would improve the entertainment factor!

    5. Though not all of the 11 DNFs were because of Honda it still quite handed the stick to Alonso… It’s been three years of utter failure, no wonder he’s been vocal about it.

      1. I’d actually be more upset if Alonso wasn’t bashing them every time a sub par driver overtook him on the straights. If he just kept quiet and raced on, it shows that he has lost the fire to compete. With his bashing you can see a driver driving his heart out only to be let down by his disastrous engine partners from Japan.

        1. curious to know how many sub par drivers you think there are in F1.

          1. @johnmilk
            As of last season I’d say Stroll and Palmer. Wouldn’t you agree?

          2. @todfod not that many then in your opinion, just thought there would be more taking into account the amount of drivers that finished ahead of Alonso

          3. @johnmilk

            Could also add kvyat, massa and raikonnen to that list.. But it then gets in to debatable territory.

      2. As @todfod mentions, surely we’d expect a driver of Alonso’s calibre to complain about an engine as down on powr and woefully unripe to race as the honda was only all too often in the last 3 years, certainly no wonder indeed @spoutnik!

        I’d even add, i cannot put away the thought that McLaren at times used their driver, who is well known to be outspoken when not satisfied, to air their dispair at the quality of Honda’s effort!

        And yeah, to hear Marko of all people talking about badmouthing an engine – another great example of the pot-kettle thing from the Dokor.

  2. We want to see 26 cars on the grid. There is an awful lot of worthy drivers who are backlogged and have nowhere to go.

    I don’t think there is any reason why F1 could not have a grid as large as 30 cars by permitting the current ten teams to enter 3 cars each. I believe the money exists in F1 to allow this to happen if they want to do it, and they should do it because the positives of such a change would far outweigh whatever negatives there may be.

    1. Better still, because of the stratospheric costs of F1 allow new teams to enter one car and race for a minimum three years then if they have achieved all the ‘goals’ , as set by the FIA, they upgrade to two cars or leave and allow others to join.The set goals would be to provide evidence of ongoing funding, being able to show better performances year on year and provide seats for new young talented drivers. All achievable if LM can re spread the income distribution. That would be a growth plan.

    2. @rob91 ”the positives of such a change would far outweigh whatever negatives there may be.”
      – Not automatically/necessarily. It’d only be worth it if the extra cars would really add to the competition unlike in the past.

      1. Adding a third car is like playing football with 16 players each.
        More players get to play, but it does nothing to the competition other than obstructing the game.

    3. lol 3 mercedes drivers on the podium. people would just find more things to complain about

    4. I might be mistaken but I thought 26 cars is the limit as there’s several tracks who won’t be able to facilitate more cars.

  3. Don’t get the caption. Super strange to see Michelin punctures, all eyes on debris and the organization.

    1. It was Continental’s tyres I think @peartree

  4. Red Bull did everything to make Renault look bad, and Renault wasn’t even close to Honda in terms of disappointment. Alonso made that McLaren Honda look better than it was, specially that P7 in qualifying at Spain. That was out of this world.

    You can’t blame him for all he said about Honda anyway, he believed in them and expected improvements even at the worst of times in 2015, but Honda kept shooting itself in the foot. Marko will be the first to shout once those engines on the back of the Toro Rosso start to blow…

    1. I beg to differ. Renault has not done itself any favours and made itself look bad.

      2014 : real fear they weren’t even going to get cars on the grid in Melbourne – their PU was easily the worst buy quite a margin.
      2015 : how many tokens did they use despite having an awful PU? At least Honda used theirs in an attempt to improve. LIttle wonder RBR weren’t happy given that there was fair evidence that Renault was considering leaving F1 completely.
      2016 : much better but still not really in the game and the teams they were supplying didn’t lambast them (they could see an upward curve so things looked promising for 2017)
      2017 : again very disappointing and poor reliability to boot – again didn’t get lambasted until they started blaming Toro Rosso for their failures. Then there was a bunfight with a fair amount of justification.

      They’ve been fortunate that Honda made such a mess of their effort and will be hoping that Honda’s woes continue into this year as it keeps the focus off them to a degree although with 2 top teams (plus their own) to supply, they’ll be under the microscope far more.

      1. @dbradock, the issue is that everybody just expects Marko to start lashing out at Honda over the course of the season, even if it is just the slightest of issues. The only thing that people expect from Marko these days is recriminations and bitterness – in an interview that was meant to be all about the positives of working with Honda, he couldn’t help but end up making bitter comments about Alonso that just demeaned Marko more than anyone else.

  5. Alonso did himself and motorsports a big Kudo for his attempt at the Rolex 24. Like Indy, fans of the Rolex responded very positively to Fernando and what his rep brings to racing. For those who missed the coverage know this these IMSA Prototypes are absolutely beautiful, fast and very cool looking machines. IMSA is every bit as fascinating as the WEC nowadays. I just cant get over the 2018 prototypes.

    1. Mind you, that race did also highlight the issues with the Balance of Performance in that series too – the Cadillac cars are still fairly dominant in what is supposed to have been a performance balanced DPi class, whilst the GT class balance is even worse given that the Ford GT is just dominating the field now (having a two lap advantage on the next nearest competitor).

  6. While most of Marko’s comments have an agenda, this one is no different but this one is also true.

    Alonso and McLaren have really gone out of their way to lambast Honda. I don’t think the gap between Honda and others was as bad as McLaren and Alonso wanted us to believe.

    If they are anything less than 2 seconds a lap faster than Toro Rosso in 2018, it will prove either of the following 2 things wrong: 1) McLaren chassis isn’t as good as they claim or 2) Honda engine isn’t as bad as McLaren claims.

    1. Really? Just look at the penalties and non-existent reliability. Look at the fubared oil tank. Look at the straight line speed. Honda have been a pathetic embarrassment, there’s just no other way to paint it.
      Markovcalling the kettle shows a typical lack of self awareness. It’s hilarious.

    2. To be completely honest, Red bull has been far more insulting to Renault than Mclaren has been to Honda. Red bull were trashing Red bull just months after they won 4 WDCs and WCCs with them. Despite Renault’s shortcomings, Red bull managed to win races with them in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Honda on the other hand has not even produced a podium worthy power unit.

      If anyone doubts just how bad the Honda power unit is, they need to look back at races where Renault engine cars were blowing by Alonsos Honda on the straights even without DRS. Also take a look at engine components used in a season as well as cumulative penalties over the past few seasons if you aren’t convinced already.

      Honda needs to thank Alonso for making them look better than they were over the past few seasons. You can’t blame a double wdc for trashing an engine supplier who can’t build a reliable and respectable power unit.

      I think Marko should just keep a lid on it. Because once Toro Ross racks up their penalties early on in the season, and they find themselves last in the WCC, I’m pretty sure they’re going to be pointing their finger the Honda way… And Marko will then be playing the role of trashing Honda in the true hypocritical fashion that is familiar with the Red bull stable.

      1. were trashing *Renault

    3. Come on; you must know better.

      And if you want to know how poor Honda was over the party years, don’t look at STR, look if McLaren improves.

    4. Alonso and McLaren have really gone out of their way to lambast Honda.

      I don’t agree. Sure they were critical, but it pales in comparison to how Red Bull acted towards Renault in 2015.

      The forthcoming behind-the-scenes McLaren documentary Grand Prix Driver gives some insight into this – details coming tomorrow once the embargo is lifted….

      1. Don’t know if a documentary made to promote the image of McLaren will tells us much about the matter if I’m honest

        1. a documentary made to promote the image of McLaren will tells us much about the matter

          It’s not though @johnmilk.
          From Keiths short review, it rather is a TV crew following what both hoped to be the moment success finally comes their way, but it turned into TV camera’s being there when realisation of the dreadfull situation sinks in (see engine suddenly not fitting into chassis when it is delivered to be fired up, then not working on fire-up etc.)

          1. @bascb that is what it turned out to be, the “story-line”

            But I’m quite sure that, if there were offensive criticism from McLaren to Honda, or remarks that won’t go down well with the general public, if there were any, and if they were cached by the crew, most certainty they have been edited out. That was the point that I was trying to make and is related to what the original comments speaks of in this thread.

            Quite sure the image the documentary will give us, is that McLaren dealt with the situation very professionally, they always tried to work with Honda, and that sort of stuff

    5. Don’t agree that they went out of their way to diminish Honda, in fact every new season start they were supportive of them.

      They did however, both McLaren and Alonso, used Honda, once the season was underway, to promote themselves to the cost of Honda. Post sessions press conferences with sentences such as “we have one of the best chassis, but…”, “best session of my life, but…” were common, and at some point quite annoying too. Radio messages also shared the same tone. But they need it, Alonso’s last championship was 12 years ago and McLaren’s 20 years have past, they have to promote themselves in some way.

      So while Helmut Marko’s comment might touch the reality a little, McLaren hasn’t been as vocal as RB was with Renault, while probably having more reasons to do so (there is still the supposed requirements made by McLaren that I think we won’t ever have clarification on), and certainty didn’t “went out of their way to lambast Honda”

  7. I agree with Marko on this one, Alonso was vitriolic towards Honda.Had Jensen still been on the team full time he would not have uttered such vicious comments as we saw from Alonso this season.

    Is it pot calling kettle black? Maybe, but both are still black.

    1. Had Jensen still been on the team full time he would not have uttered such vicious comments as we saw from Alonso this season

      I think Jenson’s on track performance would have been a viscous enough insult to Honda.

    2. Indeed, Jensen instead was happy to bow out and visibly reluctant to step in for Alonso in a single race – didn’t really paint a better picture of expectation at Honda’s progress to me @Mog; I do agree that Alonso probably could have toned it down without risking not getting his point across. But as anon says above, this was supposed to be an interview about positives with Honda, and Marko only knew how to do it by saying someone else was less positive? True to form, I think, but not a great picture.

  8. Marko “Mercedes’ overall package is clearly ahead in terms of driveability, performance, consumption and energy deployment.” and that’s not a sideways stab at Renault is it Marko!

  9. I’ve stated this before but will state it again: The current number of cars is fine, so there’s no absolute need for more. Furthermore, it’d just mean more ‘moving chicanes’ to lap for the front-runners, so, therefore, the extra six cars would basically just be nothing more than grid-fillers. Having more cars on the grid wouldn’t automatically mean more battling, i.e., more competition in the midfield. For example, as recently as from 2010 till 2012, the number of cars was 24, but the extra four cars were more or less just moving chicanes to everyone else as they were way off the pace of not only the front-runners but even the latter midfield, so basically, they added nothing to the competition. #BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor

    1. @Jerejj The highest rated race on Rate the Race at the moment is the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was a final-round title-deciding race. But had it not been for Sebastian Vettel’s incidents with Narain Karthikeyan in Malaysia and the USA, he would have wrapped the titled up on the preceding round, and Tyner drama in Interlagos either wouldn’t have unfolded or would have had much less riding on it.

      Don’t underestimate the beneficial effect to the racing of having more cars on the track to make life difficult for the leaders…

      1. @keithcollantine ”Don’t underestimate the beneficial effect to the racing of having more cars on the track to make life difficult for the leaders…” – Yes, it’s true that in the instances you brought up the backmarkers were making life difficult for the front-runners and that it can add to the excitement to some extent, but still, though, that’s a bit too artificial if you know what I mean. Having more cars on the grid would only really be worth it if the extra cars/teams were competitive enough to fight for positions in the midfield on a regular basis rather than just be there to fill up the grid slots by being unnecessary obstructions for the rest of the field 95-99% of the time like in the past.

  10. Congrats to João Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi !

    1. Yeah! An entire podium speaking Portuguese
      It is the little things!

  11. Carlos Sainz Jnr drove a 13-kilometre stage on the Monte-Carlo rally yesterday in one of the event’s course cars.

    Piece of trivia:
    Robert Kubica was at the lead of this rallye in 2014 having won the first 2 stages, ahead of Bouffier and Ogier [sic!].
    In 2015 Kubica won 4 special stages of the rallye going neck and neck vs both Ogier and Loeb.
    And that both times in a privately run WRC team.

    How’s that for ya?

    1. Hehe. Trivia, Carlos Seinz got the Renault F1 seat Kubica was competing for.

      1. Yes, @jureo, that’s what happend. Thank you, but I’m sure everybody knows that.
        But not neccessarily everybody know what happend in the Rallye Monte Carlo 2014 and 2015, don’t you agree?

        1. It’s a pity Robert couldn’t do that consistently, but this particular Rally seemed to suit his style. I’m not sure but isn’t most of it on tarmac? Perhaps that is the difference.

        2. @damon

          Yes sir I agree. I did not know that, or rather I forgot.

          Robert Kubica is well worth following, he does awesome stuff, sometimes. Most drivers tend not to do exceptional things often. That is what I like about Kubica and Alonso for example… they go outside F1 and prove themself.

          I wish today’s greats that are Hamilton and Vettel would do that aswell.

  12. There was a desperate stench of hypocrisy in Marko’s statement..What was he thinking?

    1. @baron
      Is just the usual aggressively hypocritical rubbish by important Red Bull representatives. Been that way ever since they started being successful, Horner, Marko, Tost, often Newey, they all like to tell tales full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  13. Is there any footage of the Alonso thing? I’ve watched quite a lot of it, but didn’t see it.

    1. It was dark. Nobody saw him ;)

  14. Dingdong Marko saying dingdong things…
    They had a complete meltdown with their engine supplier for being 2nd in the constructors championship in 14…

    I´d say Marko did everything to make Kvyat look bad.

  15. Of course Hamilton’s day in the park must be part PR stunt but good on him to try and do something about the whole mess.

    I actually believe than more than the public backlash, what would have hurt him a lot would be his family’s reaction. I actually believe all of this has as much to do with making amends with his nephew (and more so probably its ticked off parents) than playing nice with the public who would have forgotten it in a couple of months anyway. For some reason, I have young relatives who look up to me, and I’d be properly mortified to have let them down, and I believe Hamilton must feel it now.

    I’m being an armchair psychologist here, but for someone who didn’t seem to care about negative feedback on its posts (ala red private plane), suddenly deleting all of its social media history following his ill advised comment looks to me more of a product of having had a mouth full from somebody really close than from being afraid of the economic fallout of the saga. Suddenly, controling a bit more your exposure might seem the adult (albeit boring) thing to do.
    The BBC ran two articles wondering why he acted so purposefully so here are my two cents.

    Anyway as always, Hamilton teaches us a lesson. He first did with the potency of social media in the rise in profile of a sport and individual, and now he shows us all its pitfalls, including personnal repercussions.

    (oh and sorry, I believe I’m the first to comment on this peculiar story, all other proper F1 fanatics hace concentrated on the racing stuff, so good on you and again sorry, felt like talking about it)

    1. For some reason, I have young relatives who look up to me, and I’d be properly mortified to have let them down, and I believe Hamilton must feel it now.

      Great point there @tango, I think you could well be rigth about Hamilton there.

  16. 24 Hours Daytona 2018 results:
    Felipe Nasr: 2°
    Paul Di Resta, Bruno Senna: 4°
    Juan Pablo Montoya: 10°
    Sebastian Bourdais: 12°
    Stroll: 15°
    Alonso: 28°
    Several pilots with experience in F1 raced in the 24 hours of Daytona.
    The headlines and the articles of the specialized journalists only speak of Alonso, who had by far the worst result of them all.
    Who can believe something that these “journalists” write?

    1. There exist good replies to that question, but I am absolutely not interested in wasting my time.

    2. Who can believe something that these journalists write? Everyone.

      Alonso is by far and away the biggest name amongst the F1 drivers that participated in Daytona….amongst all the drivers really. FA’s result is not a reason to ignore that he participated to begin with. The other drivers have gotten mentions of course, but FA’s presence is really the headline grabber, just as it was at Indy last year.

  17. Alonso: 38°!!!

  18. Yes, I still feel a bit sad for Nasr, because I think he should have another shot on F1….but right now it looks impossible with so many very talented prospects coming in….but maybe he would be a good option at that Williams.

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