Massa one he knew that he couldn't overtake Hamilton and was getting near his turbulence clearly slowed down and settled for what he had. Same with Hamilton...even though the mercedes engine is better than ferari. Today, the cooling was very marginal on the ferari engines and one had already failed on the back of the BMW-Sauber. He kept his car literally for many laps behind the wake of Mclaren and that overheated the engine causing the failure.

Yet when he jumps out of the car, he tried to say how difficult it was to drive. Have you seen the virgin drivers trying to control those cars? I watched the onboard of Alonso and it was nowhere near in terms of difficulty. He dropped the baby today and no amount of excuses will convince me otherwise.

it´s just what his engineer has told him to do, as simple as that neither balls nor plain stupid

no doubt about this, no matter how real the fact is your simply bashing fernando all the time, so nothing else to be expected from you

I'm a Hamilton fan and normally steer clear of these threads (over on the dark side, hehe), but big respect to Alonso today. Arguably the drive of the day given his problems.

Massa deserves his WDC lead, no doubt, but even as someone who would like to see nothing better than Alonso being beaten by his team mate, I have to concede Alonso has been so much the better of the two so far this season.

That's not to have a go at Massa, because there aren't many who would be able to live with Alonso, but it's just the way I see it.

How do you know what Andrea told Alonso just prior to the last corner? I very much doubt he told him to try and pass Jenson. No way would he have told him to try and pass while seeing the telemetry and the health of the engine.

He didn't want to finish the race, he just wanted to break the car to be able to change his gearbox for free.

back to the topic

leader massa
second fernando

qualys 2-1 fernando
race 2-1 massa

free practices and performance in general fernando 98% - 2% massa

china next place to show how slow massa is compared to fernando, he looks more and more as good as piquet used to.

You may be right. But you'll have two weeks in order to think about if it's actually true. Two looooong weeks...

Fernando talking about the problems with the clutch, overtaking Jenson and other stuff [in spanish].

http://estaticos.marca.com/multimedia/repr...xtras_audio.mp3

wow! Fernando has a hell of a drive and gets bashed around here. I guess some people are getting nervous that in last 2 races Fernando has been half a second faster than Felipe.

Felipe will be hoping to bring that gap down when they go to races like Barcelona and Turkey which are races I expect Felipe to be faster than Fernando.

In any case. They are both 1-2 and the team leading the championship so it's a great start for both of them.

It is actually Alguersuari.

Well, that was a story between Kimi and Massa especially in their first year together in Ferrari. But being faster in race wont do you no good if you are behind and cant overtake. Massa is doing just the same for Fernando as he did to Kimi: being ahead after first corner and then staying there till the flag, for whatever reason Massa always seem to find a way of being ahead of faster team mate after first corner. Good for him.

Massa 2 > 1 Alonso.

But IMO Massa has had a lot of luck and of course his baby sitter on the pit wall.

I think Alonso will win out in the end. His drives in Malaysia and Melbourne have been outstanding. Not so Massa's.

I think luck has nothing to do with it. Getting your act together at start isnt about luck.

It's the same like Hammy vs Button. Button is ahead, but is nowhere in terms or race pace, qualy speed. After this 3 races it's clear that Hammy and Alonso are faster than their teammates and sooner or later this will be reflected in the standing points.

I saw Alonso losing in corners many times, but I didn't know what happens. With problems or without problems Alonso was faster than his teammate in all races, and here and in Aussie by a big margin. I tell you this... Alonso is not concerned about Massa to much, he is much faster than him he knows this already and sooner or later small problems will be gone, he is concerning more about Vettel. Today Hammy overtook all those guys and Massa didn't try to attack Alguersuari. Massa is slow. He is lucky to be in front, lucky because of problems Alonso, Vettel and Webber had.

I'm very concerned too about Vettel. Red Bulls are faster than Ferraris and Vettel is a very good driver.

apart from you, rodrigol jezze menace and other famously known alonso bashers, nobody doubts it..

and god hear you to get these two weeks as long as possible as it would mean my holiday would really be worthy

Sorry, this is the correct link:

http://cachevideos.marca.com/multimedia/re...xtras_audio.mp3

I agree 100%.

So this weekend's discussion ends with the phrase, 'Felipe is lucky'. Good for him, a little bit of 'luck' finally after losing the WDC in the last corner and being hit by a spring in the head almost making him blind on one eye.

Luckily Felipe is 'lucky' now and not so 'unlucky' as in the past.

Well as Alonso said, he doesn't want to be king of practice or qualy just to get points in sunday race.
Today he pulled off an excellent race, but is behind in points so the only thing that matters now is the 2-1 for massa.
But yes i do believe Alonso will beat him in the end .

cheers

As a Hamilton fan - maybe impartial, eh?! - I thought Alonso drove very well in that race. From what I can gather (from various sources, and the tv coverage) that problem would have required great skill to drive around.

alonso explains his problem, he found out right on the formation lap when the car was in neutral and thought he had to retire until he stepped down the pedal and 1st gear engaged what he had to do the rest of the race

no mechanical grip at all as the car went to neutral everytime after a downshift (which explains why he was able to pit), all the brakes set up to the back wheels, downshifted below the needed gear before the corner and a big thrust right before engaging the gear again

http://www.fernandoalonso.com/docume...040410_E_1.WMA

i´m now even more impressed!!!!!!!!!!!!! hats off dudeeeeeee

Felipe is first in the WDC now and winning 2-1 to Alonso, enjoy it! You seem so stressed, I don't want to imagine how bad these past three weeks have been for you

I think Massa is doing a great job so far. In two very difficult circumstances he has made the best out of it. And in the four WDC+Vettel championship he is leading. Massa is doing great. Even so, and that's my Alonso fanboyism talking, I am slightly more impressed with how Alonso is driving the Ferrari. He seems faster and more consistent, but as some of you have said he needs to cross the line ahead for it to count. Let´s see what China brings, hopefully a dry race.

Stressed? It's not me driving the car. I was cautious because Melbourne and Sepang have not been good to Felipe in the past. I feel much better now, thank you. Bring on Shanghai. Two good finishes (3rd in '07 and 2nd in '08), one electrical failure and one accident in a Ferrari. Alonso won there in 2005 (2nd in '06 and '07) and Felipe finished 6th from 11th on the grid in the Sauber. It's a pretty good track for both of them. Bring it on.

Fixed URL.

Well... As to the WDC and WCC fight, as a Lewis McLaren fan, Massa being in position 1 doesn't worry have any worries for me, I like Massa better then Alonso but the threat from Ferrari is clearly from Alonso.

wow i explained the whole defect without any help.. by only listening to the pitch.

well actually it was gary anderson who did that live at the star sports commentary team.hats off to the guy.im impressed

I would have to agree. I def think FM is going to undermine FA WDC if FA keeps getting stuck behind FM. For me FM just hasn't shown the pace of FA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB5wvohMfV4

Someone uploaded it, let's see if it stays this time.

marc is that you?

Most important Ferrari needs to get a handle on mechanical issues with the car and get some improvements in the pipeline. The car needs to be faster if either of them are going to catch the Red Bulls.

This is not a static situation. Massa is coming off a nasty injury and the subsequent time away from racing. Fernando is coming into a new team. Both are doing an excellent job and NEITHER is demolishing the other and I don't expect that to change over the course of the season. Massa thrives on positive feedback and the current point situation, no matter how it came about, will be a boost to him in future races. Alonso is a damn fast driver and maybe has got his one mechanical for the year out of the way. Both need to cooperate to get some much needed pace into the car and Ferrari needs to get their act together and start making better race calls and figure out what is up with the engines. Running THREE engines in three races is not going to cut it. There are 16 races left and having 5 unused engines could be a huge problem towards the end of the season.

Nice to be included on your famously known Alonso bashers list!




Great drive by Alonso considering the circumstances. Tough luck on him to have engine problems too!

Massa put in a solid drive, but I can't help but think that Alonso's problems cost him probably at the start of the race too? He said the gearbox/clutch started acting out already before the start?


otoelpiloto - You are nothing but the fanboy of the highest degree. I call a spade a spade. If Alonso deserves criticism (which in your biased eyes he never does!!!) or praise, Im willing to give it. I don't look through colored glasses like you. I get no pleasure/pain from Alonso's success or defeat. Maybe, just maybe, world of F1 racing is not as black and white as you seem to think it is.

Massa, what a great race! Now leading the WDC after 3 races, this has never happened before. Very well done, Massa.

Alonso, I don't know man. Racecraft = 0. Definitely not a Prost like drive we used to see from him. It's like he wants to upstage Hamilton and grab more headlines. He should drive with his head, like Massa is doing lately. Massa clearly has the championship in mind, Alonso drives like he has something to prove, who would expect that?

This one goes for Massa of course, for the racecraft and results.

He said the problems started in the formation lap. And in the first corner, the gearbox went to neutral, that´s the reason why he lost so many places at the start.

I think Massa is doing a poor job in that Ferrari. Alonso is going to destroy him this season.

Maybe Massa is just not the same Massa pre-Hungary 2009?

post of the week

second post of the week

either you are deluded or just lying, possibly the second option

Just as I thought.

Considering the circumstances, Alonso's effort was nothing short of brilliant!

I gave you fair criticism and fair praise for Alonso's efforts.

Wave all you want you drunken monkey, your the one who ended up with the egg on your face.

one good praise out of hundreds of posts right after you selfclaimed it... are you 12 or something?

Hey, if all you see is negative I can't help you.

Perhaps your eyes filter out the things you dont want to see! Like I said, your the fanboy of the highest magnitude on this BB. I have never seen you make a reasonable assesment of a race or a qualifying session, it's like the whole race revolves around Alonso for you.

However, to call me a Alonso basher because I defend Massa from fanboys/bashers like you, is quite rich. Like I said, I call spade a spade.

This weekend Alonso performed above expectations considering the difficult circumstances. His pace was excellent, even brilliant considering the problems he had. While he is unlucky not to maintain his championship lead, he should be very happy with his performance.

PS., I'm 29 turning into 30.

Exactly.

I feel really sorry then for your colleagues
look my man of the race in australia and today...typical of an alonso "fanboy" right?

Usually if a engine is overheating then they will tell him on the radio. Alonso won't have a temperature gauge in the cockpit.

Felipe is lucky he has a teamate that is not very good at starting and overtaking.

it looks like a pneumonic system failure, a sudden failure, nothing to do with the engine temperature or whatever these guys hint

Felipe is lucky he has a teamate that is not very good at starting and overtaking. It may sound kidding but I'm dead serious.