Was Alonso's supposedly 'great year' just because of the tyre mess? Did he actually perform better on skill or just a huge beneficiary of Pirelli situation manufactured by the Italians?
It was more of a case that he was performing average in a mediocre car for the whole of the year, while the other top drivers had upturns in performance at the start and end flyaway parts of the championship and suffered catastrophically because of the Pirellis for most of the mid season?
Ferrari was heating its tyres badly and it just happened to rather suit them once many drivers began complaining rather seriously about the choice of compounds Pirelli had brought.
Were Pirelli bringing the wrong tyre compounds to give their Italian compatriots a helping hand? Much like Bridgestone suited their tyres for Ferrari? Were Pirelli doing the opposite to achieve the same result? Were they levelling the field with useless rubber?
Could it be that with the Ferraris sliding so uncontrollably at Melbourne, Pirelli were losing face in their home country?
May they have decided to supply less suitable, unpredictable tyres that would be of little use to teams with a fine setup to drive on the limit?
Maybe they were even deliberately supplying compounds that would work better with the Ferrari & Sauber's average working temperature rather than the best for racing? Putting the others off track?
Jenson Button (supposed to be the smoothest driver on tyres) was adamant his car troubles (which started at the beginning of the European season as well) were not due to the tyres since he had a good start of the year but eventually backtracked and suggested he couldn't understand them at all.
Is Pirelli upset maybe that they haven't yet been able to get exposure alongside a championship winning Ferrari? Do they want every Italian child to have the 1:16 Ferrari WDC winning model with their name along the wheels for xmas to sit on the mantelpiece as a family heirloom reminding every dad which tyre brand to pick for the family saloon? Is having an Italian tyre company good for F1 when Italy has only one team it supports? Can Pirelli effectively wipe out British teams' advantage and months of car data by providing a less than optimum tyre selection? Flavio Briatore seems to think so:
Quote:
"That's something that should give food for thought to engineers that burn up huge budgets in simulators and windtunnels," Flavio Briatore said. "It's money thrown out of the window when Pirelli comes in with a super job with the tyres: everything else doesn't count anymore." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99932
A bit bizarre to describe it as a "super job" when everyone else is lamenting them?
Given Alonso's track record with Michelin, mass dampers, crashgate, spygate (just after Santander joined McLaren), banned team orders, etc, am I just being paranoid? Or have Pirellis just always been this way?
And yes I am the guy who made that Fishy Paella topic in the old forum that immediately linked NPJ's crash to Flavio-don't-post-that-pic-Briatore helping Alonso. In case you were wondering.
I want some other opinions on this and whatever sources I may not have covered, but the main question is were Pirelli trying to benefit Ferrari?