All,
An opinion from Mac Morrison: I thought you'd enjoy this viewpoint - the FIA and F1 at their level best...
Cheers, enjoy,
Thom
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I'm not 100 percent sure where two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso will land next year, though his friends at Renault will welcome him home when he turns his back on McLaren--something you can bet he will do once the season concludes next weekend in Brazil. And it will happen regardless of whether Alonso or teammate Lewis Hamilton, his antagonist, takes the title.
"I told Fernando that the moment he is free from McLaren, we would be pleased to have him back," Renault boss Flavio Briatore recently told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport. "It would be stupid to deny that."
Actually, McLaren is more likely to turn its back on Alonso, despite holding a multi-year contract with the man who until this year was clearly F1's top gun. As comical, political and generally bemusing as F1 is, the events of the last few months should have even the most cynical of observers banging their heads against pit walls until they require 97 carbon fiber stitches at $1000 a pop.
Wait, did I say months? Try the last few days.
On Wednesday, McLaren took the unprecedented step of issuing a press release titled, "Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes Reinforces Equality For Season Finale." This masterstroke of public relations brilliance reads in part (with emphasis added):
"Following suggestions that there might not be equal treatment for both Fernando and Lewis, the team wants to make it absolutely clear that its policy of treating both Fernando and Lewis with complete equality and fairness will continue for the final race in Brazil . . . Fernando and Lewis will enjoy the same opportunity to win in terms of equality of car, engine, tactics and use of resources."
What McLaren boss Ron Dennis and McLaren's Mercedes-Benz guru Norbert Haug failed to mention-appearing magnanimous on the surface but telegraphing a direct strike-was that Alonso himself has done a great deal of the "suggesting." He wants No. 1 status such as Michael Schumacher used to enjoy at Ferrari. He wants preferential treatment. He wants the team and all of its resources behind him 100 percent and to hell with Lewis Hamilton. He believes, as double champ, that he deserves this. Normally, I would agree with him.
Sadly for Alonso, Hamilton's performances have been a damn far sight from "normal." But Alonso's reaction to having a competitive (and shrewd, to be sure) teammate has not made him look good, and I doubt his whining has won over many fans. When someone asked him at the Chinese Grand Prix if McLaren was treating him fairly or if it was slowing his car to favor Hamilton, Alonso replied: "Difficult question . . . I will not answer."
Dennis didn't appreciate the comment.
"There are numerous equality clauses in our contracts, they are reciprocal," Dennis said. "We never have, never will and certainly are not favoring either driver at the moment. This is a straight fight and I'm obviously disappointed that someone who really has all the knowledge should not be more direct and open with the response."
Ahhh, so maybe Alonso's real problem is that he needs a better contract lawyer or agent. Look, there's no doubt Hamilton is Dennis' golden boy, groomed by the team for years and certainly given equal equipment and perhaps even more psychological support from the team. Hamilton has also been lucky to have a dream season with only one DNF all year. But Alonso's credentials and obvious talent make me think he could have coped with all this differently. Perhaps he doesn't have the right people around him, someone who could have grabbed him early this year, calmed him down and said, "This guy Hamilton is for real, and you better bring it every week." Hell, maybe he should start bringing his dad along to every race, as Hamilton does. One thing he definitely should do in the future is read the terms of his contract as cited by Dennis.
Think about it: If McLaren truly has favored Hamilton while purposely holding back Alonso, the results make it pretty hard to argue with the strategy. Ironically, Alonso thinks such a strategy is quite acceptable-it's just that he thinks he should be the beneficiary due to his past glory. That's weak at this point, and it was weak months ago when all of this started bubbling to the surface. If Alonso wanted and felt he deserved clear No. 1 status, he should have used his leverage as world champion to get Dennis to give him that in writing when he signed his deal. That's what Schumacher used to do. Don't sign a contract that makes it clear you'll have to earn top billing, then point fingers when the other guy does just as well as you. Quite why Alonso seems so taken aback at McLaren's equality policy baffles me. He's the one who signed the damn contract.
But here's the most bizarre twist: Now comes word that the FIA-yeah, F1's governing body-has assigned a dedicated official to McLaren for Brazil. Why? To ensure both drivers are treated equally. Are you #&@$^%! KIDDING ME?
"Yes, it's true that the FIA will have a steward making sure that nothing wrong happens to Fernando, especially in qualifying, which is where there have been more complaints or strange situations in the last few Grands Prix," said Spanish motorsport federation boss Carlos Garcia in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS.
This situation has treaded into territory previously known only to Sly Stallone and his crew of lobotomy-afflicted writers on the night they stuck hot pokers into each other's brains and sat down to craft Driven. The FIA is policing the behavior of a team as it battles for the title with . . . itself? The FIA monitoring a team's strategy for its own drivers is one of the most asinine things I've ever heard of in sports. I mean, can you imagine the NBA sending an official to observe, say, Miami Heat games, and then the guy gets to pop into the huddle to tell Pat Riley that Antoine Walker must play the same amount of minutes and take as many shots as Dwayne Wade? This is the kind of thing that goes on in Little League rec games to make sure every kid feels good about themselves. But at the highest level of professional sports? Shoot me in the eye. The whole thing makes Alonso and F1 as a whole look ridiculous.
Yep, Alonso's only solution at this point is to leave McLaren, return to Renault and its preferential treatment, and battle Hamilton as true No. 1s from different teams. I don't know what Alonso will do if he loses then-other than blame his car. But at least McLaren won't fill my inbox with laugh-out-loud press releases, and the FIA observer can go back to mowing Bernie's lawn or typing-up Max's daily schedule. Yet if anyone still hoped that F1 would one day again resemble "sport," those dreams have suffered a serious blow.
Maybe it doesn't matter, though. Because while no one knows exactly how this is going to shake out, the one thing I can guarantee absolutely is that I'll be glued to the screen for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Hmmm, talk about conspiracy theories: Could Bernie, Flavio, Ron, Lewis and Fernando be sitting in a dark room, laughing hysterically all the way to several Swiss banks? At this point in a season that has jumped the shark at least five times, anything seems possible.
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Originally Posted by Homemade 911
