planetf1.com

A championship that’s going to have a loser between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel rises the doubt that looked eternal when comparing Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher – thankfully so. Now that the German engaged 7th gear on his way to his third title, the rivals claim that the pavement to the German’s glory is made by Adrian Newey’s ingenious machine as well as luck. Being that Vettel is equally a genius and doesn’t owe anything to Alonso in terms of talent.

F1 allows that we ask the question of who’s better between the two, and a public poll without error margin would hand Alonso the win. But the people’s answer is based on an imagination exercise: that Vettel wouldn’t do anything with this Ferrari car or that Alonso would already be champion with Red Bull at Hungary, for example. Less. Vettel is far from being a rider of perfect cars. The flaw in this evaluation is in not thinking about other reasoning paths that lead into believing that Vettel works better than Alonso to build a perfect car. Therefore, why not question Alonso’s efficiency as a setup specialist or not research why the cars the Spaniard drives don’t develop like the others? Why must a driver be evaluated only by merely what he does on the track during qualification and races?

In a day and age of little to no testing, the above paragraph is irrelevant. Development is done in the windtunnel and a straight line track, not by the driver.

Alonso won his last title in 2006 with a Renault a priori worse than Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari. There, the biggest name in F1 was about to rise, the one who slapped the best ever twice. But when he moved to McLaren and lost all the infinite privileges conquered by the not so respectable and ethical Flavio Briatore, Alonso couldn’t find himself. By entering into a conflict with Hamilton, he made McLaren lose an easy title to Raikkonen. He MADE McLaren lose an easy title? As in, he made Hamilton stick it in the gravel in China or fudge his race in Brazil? Regardless.. carry on...

Back to Renault in 2008, he won a race in the midst of Singapore’s scheme, another by talent in Japan and spent 2009 winless. After, he jumped to Ferrari. Three more years of drought. He couldn’t beat Red Bull in 2010 because there was a Petrov in the way at Abu Dhabi – and who loses a title stopped cold by a Petrov, doesn’t deserve to win anyway. And, last year, he couldn’t stand a chance against a Vettel motivated by the unexpected title from the year before.

1) Explain Webber's race. It was a miscalculated strategy on a track difficult to overtake. Do remember there was no DRS at that time. Does a driver who crashes into their own teammate or T-bones a car on a straight deserve the title? 2) He couldn't stand a chance due to Red Bull's flexi-wings, off-throttle blown diffusers, manual ride-height adjustment and retarded engine mapping. Red Bull have gone against the spirit of the rules on every occasion. Even this year Vettel was no-where until Red Bull repositioned to exhaust to technically legally blow the diffuser. Let's not even mention the DDRS introduced in Japan.

2012 started with Ferrari slower than even Sauber, Mercedes, Lotus and Force India. There, McLaren had by far the best equipment and Red Bull was 0.5s worse on average. Meaning that the Bulls had a slightly complicated job to do for a team used to being ahead of the pack and Ferrari, a more than steep mountain to climb. With luck and competence, Alonso took advantage of the inconsistency and mechanical failures from his rivals to rise to the top of the tables with a car that improved a lot compared to the beginning, even more so because it had a much bigger window for development. Quietly, Red Bull caught up with McLaren, which showed some recovery and started to dominate for some races. But Hamilton again didn’t take advantage of it and Button, slow during some seven races, was too far to dream high.

Then the F1 vacation arrived, and Red Bull did its work. Knowing their efficiency was in the aerodynamics and the corners, Belgium and Italy served to extract the maximum possible amount of points until the Asian races arrived, with tracks different from each other, but all demanding the car’s precision. Done. The work developed by Vettel and delivered to Newey had its effect. Notice that Webber also took advantage of it, scoring seconds and thirds, but it’s evident that Webber isn’t expected to have the last word in the garage on where to move a flap or a wing’s height or how to efficiently utilize the tires. In a championship that started with seven different winners, Vettel made it boring with four consecutive wins and a formidable recovery at Abu Dhabi, finishing close behind Alonso staring from the pits.

In other words, Vettel built and rose Red Bull to the top in four years. Alonso never did this with Ferrari in three.
Built? Again... he landed in a car second to Brawn in 2009, which was the class of the field after the first six races. There is no such thing as 'building' anymore, otherwise Mercedes with Schumacher, Brawn, Head and Costa wouldn't be trailing in the lower half of the field this year.

Technical master Ricardo Divila pointed at some stories and factors about the relationship driver/engineer that support the thesis that Alonso lacks the fine tune. “As much as you look at data and telemetry, the interpretation of what the driver feels is paramount, especially when the driver can identify what he wants to go faster”, he said. “There’s what’s called the perfect car, by the laws of physics, but every driver drives his own way – not necessarily the fastest theoretically possible, but the fastest in reality.”

Each driver, then, sets up the car in the manner they find best. It’s obvious Red Bull and Ferrari develop their cars according to the style of their first drivers, as what happened with Schumacher – who preferred an aggressive front – or Alain Prost – whose choice was a car with a more stable rear. Divila, by the way, remembered the contrast between the Frenchman and Keke Rosberg. “Keke was a juggler, with an incredible sense of balance, and very fast. But when he was at McLaren partnering Prost he was always slower, because John Barnard based the car’s setup on Prost and forced Keke to run with the same setup”, he told. “Discussing the subject with Keke at the time, he complained about a car that had a soft front, difficult and slow into the corners. He hated to drive against his instincts and reflexes. Only in the end of his last year they changed his track engineer, setting the car up towards his driving style, when he started to equal or beat Prost.”

The skill in developing a car to your own driving style is also exemplified to the extreme when Ferrari moved ahead with Schumacher, Divila emphasized. “Car, aerodynamics and tires were strictly developed to such point that he was able to dominate for a large period of time. After his retirement, the car became difficult to drive for the following drivers”, he pointed out, then saying adjustment is missing between Michael, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, the “true engineer at Ferrari”.

Then speaking of the current question, Divila underlined that Alonso is one of the best ever “in the criteria of aggression, skill and fighting spirit”, but he lacks “a little technical capacity”. Something the German competitor has in abundance. “By Newey’s comments, Vettel has that, he’s as fast as Alonso, but has a little difficulty in traffic, for he is less aggressive. But in comparison, Red Bull’s skill-technique match is superior to Ferrari’s”, he evaluated.

Divila, who worked with Newey, didn’t forget to compliment his work. “I must say he’s much better than me in aerodynamics”, he confessed and finished.

In conclusion, it’s no use for Alonso to credit to only Newey his new defeats. Vettel, it’s good to refresh the selective memory, won a race start-to-finish in a Toro Rosso when it was as slow as the then current Red Bull. Bourdais qualified P4 that day. The Torro Rosso B-spec was consistently in the points for the season and superior to the RB A-squad. Check your facts. His development is noticeable. And, dealing with the real facts, they should kneel themselves to the one who, with a triple championship in hand, becomes bigger than Alonso in numbers and statistics five years younger. And who already is one of the best drivers of all time.Laughable.

Victor Martins Certain you don't mean Christian Horner?

I predict this thread will go to 15+ pages

I said it before, and I'll say it again: Alonso is undoubtedly the best when the car is hard to drive/not so fast. But when the car is sorted out, Vettel is faster. And it's virtually impossible to win a championship with hard to drive car unless all your opponents trip badly (almost happened this year thought). If the car is good/easier to drive, Alonso loses his edge and even Massa seems equal to him.

Who knows what may happen in the years to come, but right now Vettel is the top dog. Heck, Alonso was actually extremely lucky in Brazil, since Vettel spun on the first lap, was hit by Senna, ended up with a damaged car, and the Spaniard was largely benefitted by Hamilton and Hulkenberg's crash in front of him, but it seems fate course-corrected itself and handed the WDC to Vettel.