Is Alonso playing dirty to undermine Lewis?

[Dare]

Thursday 12th July 2007
 

Fernando Alonso has been accused of playing dirty by deliberately confusing Lewis Hamilton over set-up.


In an intriguing twist to the in-house McLaren battle for the World Championship, it is suggested that Alonso has adopted a policy of go-slow on Fridays in order to effectively sabotage his team-mate's prospects of victory.


Since being promoted to the role of race driver at McLaren, the British rookie has made no secret of his tendency to copy Fernando's set-up, but, it is alleged, he has now been sent down a dead-end by the cunning Spaniard.


Following his defeat at Indianapolis, where he topped the timesheets in all three practive sessions as well as the first two qualifying stints, Alonso's performances on Friday at both Magny-Cours and Silverstone have been been notably tardy.


In France, the double World Champion finished the opening day in a lowly eighth, whilst in Britain he was similarly uncompetitive, setting the sixth-fastest lap time of the day, almost a full second slower than pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen. On the Saturday, however, he immediately bounced back, recording a lap time in qualifying that was considerably faster than Hamilton's once fuel levels had been taken into account.


"On Saturday I went faster than Hamilton but then with less fuel in the tank he was able to win pole, and it seemed that there was a big party," Alonso reflected smugly. "Because of that, finishing ahead of him tastes even sweeter. Since Canada I have been a lot quicker than him."


To ensure harmony within the team, Ron Dennis has ordered both drivers to attend debriefings together, as well as share telemetry. Yet it could be that Hamilton has been sent a dummy at the past two events.


The youngster bemoaned his set-up after his deflating performance at Silverstone, and it is also claimed that he made a critical error when he misdiagnosed oversteer at his first pit stop during Sunday's race.


'Lewis called for a bit less front grip, which was achieved through amended tyre pressures and a front wing adjustment, but he got it wrong - on the middle stint the car understeered badly,' reported ITV's Ted Kravitz.


'The tyres started to grain and as they lost more and more grip, the fronts started to lock up under braking, which compounded the problem.


'Lewis also had a different rear suspension to Fernando that wasn't as kind to the tyres, and lost him more speed. The question is whether that was Lewis' choice, or whether there was only one new suspension available, and Alonso got it first.'

[Chameleon]

Who would blame Alonso if it were true?  To see a newbie come in and start getting all the credit when he's using all your settings must be incredibly galling.  Alonso gained his skill at setting up the car through experience and hard work - let Hamilton do the same.

[raindancer]

I think I agree. Let Hamilton learn of his own accord. Why should he copy Alonso's setup and cry when he is not able to copy.

[Ian]

Welcome to F1 Lewis, some dogs are bigger and hungrier, it's a hard life ain't it.