In all fairness they said that Button's was the first DRS overtake that we saw LIVE on television (at least that's what they wrote on Autosport live), which still holds true

That's probably true and the reality is that we can only focus on a very,very small percentage of what is going on around us which holds true for commentators too But Alonso did the overtake on a Mercedes powered car within the 1st few laps of racing with the new DRS.

Spaniards have two surnames: the surname of the father in first place and the surname of the mother in second place.

So the name is: Fernando

The first surname is: Alonso (surname of the father)

The second surname is: Díaz (surname of the mother)

Now the law has changed, and every couple having a baby can change the order of the surname (mother's surname being first and father's surname being second) if they want.

In order to shorten the names, Spaniards usually just say: "I'm Fernando Alonso", but for legal matters you have to use both surnames: "I, Fernando Alonso Díaz, with the National Document of Identity number X, declare that..."

Sometimes, the surname of the mother is more 'famous' than the surname of the father. For example: The prime minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is known in Spain as 'Zapatero' and not 'Rodriguez' (which is a very common surname in Spain), or the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca is known as 'Lorca' and not 'García' (which is also a very common surname).

New blog entry.

http://www.ferrari.com/english/scuderia/bl...-at-a-time.aspx

this one was just scary good

what a bad start in the weekend.
fernando is doing fine, but the car is totally crap,
this will be a bad bad year for FA (again)!

Let's call the end of the world after the race please, not after FP2. The Car is not gonna get any poles on normal conditions but I still think it's a good car for the race.

Video interview with the bbc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0TcFrIAKGk...player_embedded

Alonso's utterances are re-enforcing the view that he is not a team leader. After testing Button and Hamilton talked up McLaren, spoke of the ability of the team to recover from setbacks and produce a competetive car; Alonso sounds totally negative about his team when he should be encouraging them.

"sounds"......
What do you know about Fernando is speaking "WITH" his team??

Engineers trying to do their job get more satisfaction from observable facts rather than hollow flattery.
Boosting spirits of a team tends to happen in person or other direct contact such as phone calls, not through a media proxy.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90470




Lets talk about "utterances"

http://www.yallaf1.com/2011/03/08/mclaren-...ton-to-shut-it/

In public he is saying that the position is hopeless - Do you think his team can't hear that?

And that sentence gives the impression that you are into wishful thinking... Remember who said "we will win this championship" after Silverstone last year? By the way, what did you think of that comment at the time?

Pretty good job given the circustances, now let's hope for a good start.

I think when alonso was wathching the lap times after the qualy (shown in TV), the whole season went past him in his mind, knowing that there is no chance of fighting for the title this year.

poor alonso,

his job today he did awesome

Let's review 2010 for a second...
Alonso's results for the first 8 races:
- Bahrain 1st
- Australia 4th
- Malaysia 13th/DNF
- China 4th
- Spain 2nd
- Monaco 6th
- Turkey 8th
- GBR 14th

So far Bahrain has been postponed, he has matched his result at Australia, and looks set to improve his result at Malaysia. If he can maintain a similar level to 2010 in these first races and Ferrari improves for the second half of the season, he can still fight for it with a strong second-half of the season. I doubt that he was giving up while watching this qualy...

Despite pushing the Scuderia to give him a faster car ASAP, our boy is also predicting a podium finish!

"We were expecting maybe more problems, and a worse qualifying position," he said. "To be fifth, starting from the clean side, with the race in front of us.. I think if we finish the race we will be on the podium."

I know you probably just forgot to mention but the results could have been a lot better if he hadn't screwd up australia, china, monaco and gbr.

every driver makes (or made) mistakes. that doesnt bother if there are not that much.
australia was not a mistake as already discussed, china he recovered well.

the main problem last year were the steward decisions that costed alonso at least 30 points.

And I know you probably could not pass the opportunity to try and put the guy down , but surely you realise that the reason for that performance is irrelevant to my comment?

No it's quite relevant to the point(off the mark, it seems) you were trying to make.

There were plenty of mistakes made by all the drivers and top teams last year which is why 5 drivers were still in with a chance of being champion with two races to go. Vettel was the fastest and made the fewest mistakes, which is why he was so deserving of championship glory. When you compare Fernando to Massa in 2010, it seems clear (at least to me) that Fernando was driving 10/10ths to put the car where he did, and subsequently made more errors. Being new to the team certainly didn't help.

So far this season Fernando has had to really push the car again, faster than it has any right to go. That may cause more errors again in his efforts to overperform and maximize points while driving an underperforming car. Not too bad so far. If he can escape these first three races with a decent points haul, then when Ferrari sort their problems (and with LdM planning to run for PM and the car named F150th Italia, does anyone doubt they will spare no expense?), I think, come November, this season will wash away the bitter aftertaste left by Abu Dhabi last year.

Let's hope so. If the Ferrari race pace really is better than the qualy pace, as seemed to be the case in Australia, and Alonso doesn't get yet another one of his bad starts (though in Aus he actually started quite well, was just unfortunate where he placed himself at the first corner) then he could well sneak onto the podium tomorrow even if it's dry. If it's wet then anything can happen.

FORZA FERNANDO! FORZA FERRARI! FORZA FELIPE, TOO!

No, it isn't - I am simply saying that a bad first stint of races do not necessarily mean a team/driver is out of competition for the WDC/WCC. So Ferrari still has time to recover before they give up on this year. I thought my post was quite straighforward, care to explain what you interpreted that looked off the mark?

Last year's results look worse because of the screw ups. The car was much better then. It's going to take a lot more to catch up this year. They don't even know what is wrong, they are lost.

I don't think so! Have to wait some races!

OK, bad start again, time to check with the doctor, that's not normal anymore. Good race pace and all, bad luck with the DRS but very stupid mistake, 3rd was almost secured, and 4th was pretty good too.

with the car we have, this is not acceptable.

Stupid mistake from Alonso, very very stupid and its all his fault.
He was on for a podium and went overboard trying to compensate for a broken DRS.
I sure he will, but he owes a massive apology to the team.

I'm glad Massa finished ahead of him for his mistake but also glad Alonso tried to catch Massa otherwise he wouldn't deserve to be in F1.

Atleast Hamilton finished behind in the end and Heidfeld got the podium place instead

Can you still not blame Alonso for anything?

Damn, without this mistake it would be really good race. P6 is not too bad (I expected P5 before the race) but with those circumstances P3 was within reach.

Mixed feelings.

Alonso was set to overtake Lewis in his second pit stop. TV didn´t show but something must have happened, 'cause he returned behind Button in fourth. DRS failure wouldn't be the reason.

Again, that is irrelevant to my point.

Unforgivable mistake. A shame because his pace was promising.

Come on. Ferrari pitwall is unforgivable...

As I said elsewhere and as most are saying here - stupid mistake. Without it he had a podium for sure. Ferrari's dreadful strategy calls didn't help but it was the usual red mist descending any time he's around Hamilton that cost him. Forget Abu Dhabi: it was these sort of mistakes that cost Alonso the title last year and with Red Bull seemingly a one-car team this year he can afford them even less if he wants to challenge Vettel for the title. Dreadful, dreadful error.

Wasn´t it so that this guy should be a ultimate car developer and team leader...

Why blame! Alonso is a racer and also a person. He made a fault and so what?? He never give up.
I'm optimistic that we will see him on podium and also winning. Don't worry about this!

Forza ferrari - Puxa Fernando!

IN F1 there are no small mistakes in these situation. Small mistake big consequences. Things happen.

With all his experience, it was a very stupid mistake I am sure if it had been another driver and not Hamilton, he would have had more patience.

It is a shame because we could have got a podium easily without that mistake.

I thought these silly mistakes would have stopped by now. He never made so many errors when he won his championships at Renault.

He wasn't having to race in so much traffic then. Compare Schumacher's 2004 to 2005.... Similarly Vettel when not out front.

More mistakes again, and finish behing Massa.

Poor poor poor.

To be fair Alonso is getting old now.

No point comparing him to what he could do 6 years ago at 24 years of age. It's always going to be downhill.

He is 30 years old in 2 months.

Well Schumacher is still making mistakes, they are a part of racing and will never go away.

That is why we love it right? its the brief attainment of perfection not a constant display of perfection and predictability.

Certainly most of the blame rests with Alonso as he was behind, but my guess is that with Hamilton's problem (whatever it was) he was even slower coming out of that turn than he'd been on the previous laps and Fernando just couldn't react in time. Have to roll my eyes a bit at the people on here acting like THEY are more upset than Alonso and Ferrari from this situation. I think Fernando and Ferrari were the ones who lost the big points haul today!

Was impressed by the pace of the car in the race. Hopefully they'll make big improvements after China and can really put the pressure on RBR and McLaren!

Racing is a lot closer and competitive than it was in 05 and 06. More people have fast cars so slight mistakes are more costly whereas back then you'd have probably got a podium.

Uh huh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImZVI2-umE

2006: Tight and twisty hungarian track + Rain + Traffic = No problem
2011: Wide tilke track + ultra-slow Hamilton = Collision

I dunno, maybe those years in the wilderness after the Mclaren debacle dulled his edge. But at 30 you're supposed to be a better, more experienced driver than at 25, not worse.

WDC:
Vettel - 50
Button - 26
Hamilton - 24
Webber - 22
Alonso - 20
Massa - 16

So what? It is pretty clear that SV is going to win the WDC in Korea or India at this rate or maybe before..