ALESI wrote:
One thing, if we think who was the last team to win a Grand Prix that wasn't Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull.... it was Renault wasn't it? I can't seem to find a nice simple list of winners to confirm this without trawling through endless pages of results, but I'm guessing it was... or if it wasn't it was the last team to be credible challengers (when Kimi was there). It's not like Dan has signed for Force India, Renault have won before and are definitely the only option outside of the top three.
I wonder how many seasons it takes before a driver learns to be pragmatic? So few guys actually win races, and even fewer win championships, I know the fans want their driver to have the 'win at all costs' mentality, but realistically, if you were in their shoes you would have to learn to accept that maybe it's not going to be you - but maybe you can still have a good career and make yourself a lot of money. I don't think there's any shame in that.
And you may take the view that in that case you need to get out and let someone with the right attitude take your seat - but that's not how the world works. That comes from the same idealistic viewpoint as people on music forums who think that bands that change their musical style should change their name - as if the name isn't a valuable commodity in itself.
So inevitably you get these drivers like Barrichello who are good enough to sit in a top car and will make lots of money and are still 'star names' in the sport, but who nobody genuinely believes is going to be a WDC.
Daniel is definitely taking a risk, but it seems to me he was damned if he stayed anyway. Maybe he's starting to see that the chances of him becoming WDC are receding, because the WDC winning cars aren't available to him. So does he drive himself mad fretting about it, or readjust his ambitions?
Let's be honest, Alonso is in the same place - okay he's already won his titles, but did he ever really believe he was going to win with Honda/McLaren? Or did he just think, you know what - I'm not going to get in a Merc or a Ferrari, let's make a huge pile of cash getting paid to drive racing cars really fast, it'll still be fun (well...) and who knows maybe something will come up in a couple of years.
I mean you have to wonder at the motivation of guys like Alonso and Kimi, not that I question their application, but they've been to the top of the mountain and something keeps them hanging around even though they must know they aren't going to get there again. If you were them and you still enjoyed the buzz, wouldn't you stick around and get all the cash you can? Aren't they just capitalizing on their reputation and the championship(s) they won?
I just think some people have a more realistic view than others, and there must come a point where you roll around to Australia for the nth time and think, stop kidding yourself... it ain't going to happen, just enjoy it.
I wonder if Hamilton would have become the great that he has if he hadn't won that first WDC in 2008? If it had taken him seven years to win. Would he have been able to keep the belief alive or would he have accepted that it wasn't going to work out for him?
Actually, that's a good point - who has had the longest career prior to winning a WDC? Button must be in with a shout for that one...
The problem with that is that if it takes you so long to become a WDC, the fans automatically wonder why and then they come to the conclusion that it's not you - it's the car. As if that was any different for any driver...
Say Renault come out with a world beater of a car in 2021 and Ricciardo wins the title over Hulk. How will people react to that? I think it will be another case of 'Oh he only won because he was in the right car at the right time', completely ignoring the fact that Vettel was in Red Bull at the right time, Hamilton was in Mercedes at the right time, Mansell was in Williams at the right time, Hill was in Williams at the right time... Villeneuve was in Williams at the right time.
Of course to go back to my previous example, Barrichello was in the right car at the right time but he still didn't get the job done. I think we quickly forget in these times of inter-team championship battles how many times a WDC has only had to beat a team mate... and with that in mind, why would Dan stay at a team where he probably thinks that even if by some miracle they got a dominant car, he would lose out to Max (either because Max is better or because he thinks the team would engineer a Max WDC).
I agree with this.
Though I think Dan still has a firm belief that he can win a WDC.
I think he feels that while he couldn't get a seat at Merc or Ferrari, moving to a team where he can be the king of his own sandbox (so to speak) was a much better option then equal status.
I think he felt it was time for a pay rise and a chance at a team that will be willing to build around him rather the sitback and take the risk of being edged into a number 2 role by a team mate who is younger, slightly faster and has an incredible amount of hype around him.
Why not move? Honda and rbr are a slim chance to produce a title winner in the next two seasons.
may as well settle down for the long haul and establish the Renault works outfit around himself and hope come 2021 they can produce the goods.
Im not certain he's resigned himself to the history books of deserving but unable to achieve a WDC driver just yet.
edit: Also I think Lotus was the last non Merc, Ferrari, rbr team to win a race.. not sure though.