Raincoat, just who are you a fan of? These are some pretty strong predictions.

I agree that's his modus operandi, but I call it being cautious, can't find anything wrong with any driver being cautious.



I also agree with that, 1995 Ferrari had 11 podiums and last year's only 6

Intresting thought coming from Ferrari and who will really give them the advice they want about the car
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81140


Guess they dont believe Alonso's claims of 0.6 seconds either

Nonsense.

Unless what Ferrari want is comparison between R29 and F10.

No. That's what we call rational and realistic. He predicts based on times from practices/qulis/engineer simulations, it's not as if Renault simulate Top 5 and he gives 6th before the screen. It's true that anything can happen during a race, but I see no wrong not counting your luck before you got it.

He must have learnt it off Schumacher who was the king of it. For the first few years at ferrari he dismissed the possibility of fighting for the wdc before the season even started.



True. In 1995 the Ferrari was far stronger than the 2009 Ferrari, It scored 11 podiums and was on the verge of being a front runner. Alonso is starting from a deeper hole.

FM must be really good, shaved 0.348" of FA's .6".

Alonso has been stealing Felipe's set-ups!!!!

Actually, he is acknowledging and being grateful to Massa's work. A lot different than taking all the credit from someone else and making yourself look like the messiah.

He has to have a better image then his Mclaren and Renault stints, where at various stages in seasons he's attacked the teams that have made his car lol I even remember him praising his own driving and making the renault look like a weaker car in the 2005 season, only for Pat Symonds to say we had the best car, but did not choose to go for wins all of the time, yence Alonso played that up by downplaying his chances in races to ensure the difficult car challenge makes his success seem more like a tough Schumacher season where people know Michael has a talent in maximising the car's problems at times and getting wins he normally shouldn't, Alonso though wanted to talk his way into getting more respect, this is the side to him that spoils his actual driving talent. He knows ferrari is a team you don't badmouth, if there's any time to grow up and show manners, now is the time. He has to change, but one press release won't cut it, he needs to show dignity and team spirit when the pressure is on and ferrari are in tough times as well as good, then he'll get the respect, he knows what he says at ferrari will be more closely watched then at any other time in his career.

Meh.

That is begging for a 0.6s joke, but I'll hit you with something even more obvious:

I thought Alonso didn't need any help setting up his car...let alone from Schuey's old 'lapdog'

I predict a tough season for Michael based on today. Being beaten by Fernando by nearly a sec.
And this with Fernando having at least eight laps worth of fuel in his tank still!

BTW, Michael also has started downplaying his season already: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81244

So Alonso is definitely in Schumacher´s footsteps in more than one field.

Finally, how beautiful the new Ferrari with Alonso´s colorful helmet in it, and how ugly the grey Mercedes with Schumi´s either red or black helmet in it.

Alonso : Massa 1 : 0

DIIIIING !!!

Wake up people

Combined times from Valencia testing:

PosDriverTeamBest
1.Alonso Ferrari 1:11.470
2.Massa Ferrari 1:11.722

So...
> Fernando was 0.252 sec faster than Felipe after the first round of tests.
> We suppose the track was faster on day 3 [more rubber laid down], however, nobody run the 2nd and 3rd day os test. So no conclusion can be drawn about track conditions.

Therefore...
If the track was better, Alonso did an equivalent time to Massa, using his baseline car set up.

If the track was worse, Alonso imposed his 0.6 sec over Massa, using his own set up.

Discuss people.

Felipe improved his time from day one by 0.852. Fred improved Felipe's time by 0.252. The winner is Felipe .

BTW. 0.852 - 0.252 = 6 tenths . Felipe possesed Spaniard's secret weapon ?

Those figures are too exact to be a coincidence

Felipe's accident caused him to gain super-powers, whereby he can draw out people's skills...

Currently it looks like Ferrari might be the winner of that battle. Obviously the 2 driver can work together when it comes to developing the car and the set-up is not 100% different, so that work by one driver is useful for the other.

This should help them make the car better.

Uhmmm...

Considering the probable track impro on the 3rd day and some stardard deviation, Alonso is not doing so much better than Kimi.

But since Ferrari claimed that Alonso was hired due to his development powers, let's see how much time advantage he can clear over Massa.

So far, Alonso is equivalent to Kimi, IMO.

This is all over. Alonso will beat Massa.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81247

EDIT: Disregard, I should go back to my meds.

Your right, Ferrari in 1996 had a vast budget advantage compared to the next highest spending teams, McLaren and Williams. (Autosport Janury 1997: 1996 team budgets - Ferrrari 192 million, McLaren 94 million, Williams 76 million.)
In 2010, Ferrari doesn't have a vast budget advantage of nearly twice the other top teams as it had in 1996 (and most of the 90's)

The fact that Alonso is so quickly on the pace bodes well. I think thats the most important thing to take away from this.

And you guys are just comparing final times, when you've gotta realize that Alonso's best lap was done on lap 4 of a 12 lap stint, and had one run of 24 laps in the 1:12's and 1:13's, which, as far as I know, is faster than what Massa was doing over long runs. But again, I'm not trying to say 'x' is faster than 'y', just that being quickly on the pace in a brand new time his first time in the car says a lot about how at ease he is within the car.

Alonso says that he's got more work to do to get 100% comfortable with the car and with the team, and we certainly shouldn't start making any conclusions at this point.

Alonso = Massa so far, I reckon, but given the race scenario I do expect things to be different....

actually i expect that alonso beats massa fair and square over the course of the season.

anything else would be a suprise.

You have summed him up perfectly! Now its evident the car is good so he has no excuses.

Massa was interviewed by Corriere Dello Sport.

> FM didn't promised to finish his career at Ferrari.

> FM is not afraid of Rossi replacing him rumours.
"Valentino is playing 90% and 10% checking is future in auto racing".
"At his age is not easy to grom the necessary experience".

100% agreed.
but so far we've had 0 races, a few topics on this already closed and 9 pages on this one already
I wonder what was there to be discussed so much on this until now

I think we've got Alonso bashers and Massa fanboys who are eager to jump on any bit of data that 'leans' towards Massa being quicker, and then Alonso fanboys and Massa-doubters who are doing vice-versa.

Dont expect to see much 'reasonable' arguments from any of these camps. This thread will get interesting once the season actually starts, cuz I certainly dont expect to see any very noticeable differences between the two guys during testing.

considering Stefano and Luca were all waxing Alonso's as$ even before he drove the car, i would be surprised aswell

about Alonso vs Massa ......it seems the spanish media (Mundo Deportivo) has began with titles like "why don't you shut up?!" to Massa.
Massa said in the brazilian show that now with MSC returning, the best driver in the field it's MSC.
Apparently, the one that wrote the article felt that it wasn't nice from Massa not to declare his team mate the best one
Although, Massa says Kimi didn't speak much and Fernando it's like them and that other positive stuff about him, the title is "why don't you shut up?"

You gotta "love" this kind of journalism.

source http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/2010021...-te-callas.html

It has began - the Spanish inquisition

"integrate better with the team " - exactly the same thing was said when he joined McLaren........

2000+ comments

Hahaha, that's funny. I wonder how much shit Massa gets if he starts beating Alonso

And with all the Santander money backing Alonso, no chance Massa will beat Alonso. I can see FM leaving Ferrari and Fisi taking over the 2nd seat in the near future

So the Spanish journalist feels offended just because Massa hasn't called Alonso the best driver?

Seriously what do you expect from the Spanish press?

That's from old interview, certainly before F10 launch. Why don't you, Spanish journo moron, just shut the f*ck up and stop stirring s*it up ?

Exactly the same thing that we could expect from the British press.

Spanish press is much worse...they are basically an highly emotionally charged version of the British press

Spanish press are just amateurs compared to the British, they are just a child learning the game of yellow press, british press are mature men in this kind of business, they invented it in fact.

Spanish press still have that football point of view which make them look like fanatics, they started covering F1 extensively just a few years ago, they don´t have that malice and bias that comes from experience, and also they don´t have that kind of power to start a proper biased campaign like that one about racism in Spain, but i´m sure sooner or later they will

Anyway, at the end of the day it doesn´t matter if they are a bit worse or not, the thing is that some of them are bad.

BTW, Alonso was asked about this and he chose to ignore it, like he always does.

No

Can we please discuss the drivers and not the press of different nations.

Thanks

At the last test Alonso jumped right into Massa's car used his set, and immediately went 3 tenths faster within 20 laps. This was when he was just getting comfortable in the car, and using brembo brakes for the first time. Hes again quicker than Massa this test. Boy its going to get ugly when Alonso actually starts feeling at home in that car.

Its *really* hard to compare drivers when they're driving on different days. Conditions change, testing programs are rarely *exactly* identical, etc etc

True but things seem to flowing in a certain direction already. The next test will be interesting, surely track conditions and test programs wont continue to favour Alonso?

Joking aside that is pretty good consistency, exactly what testing requires.

The Spanish media is already ****ing up everything. I really hope that it won't be like with Mclaren just because the team doesn't favour Alonso but give the drivers an equal treatment.

If Massa beats Alonso like Lewis did...then Alonso will realize his "childhood dream" about being in some other team.