No place for Alonso at Mercedes – Lauda

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso will not be joining Mercedes, according to Niki Lauda, as the team see no need to replace Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

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Lauda rules out Alonso at Merc (Sky)

“No. Confirmed: we have Lewis and we have Nico. They are on the front-row of the grid [in Japan], why should we change anything?”

McLaren say no driver signed yet for 2015 (Reuters)

“‘You’re going to ask the drivers, you’re going to ask Eric. They’re not going to respond because I’m going to tell you a simple fact – we do not have a contract with any driver…’ Dennis said, before adding ‘at this moment of time.'”

Ron Dennis frustrated by lack of engine parity with Mercedes works team (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“What that means is that in my opinion, an opinion held by many people in our organisation, is that you have no chance of winning a world championship if you are not receiving the best engines from whoever is manufacturing your engines.”

Sebastian Vettel goes to Ferrari for more than cash and a quick car (The Guardan)

“You can compare it to at some point in your life you decide to grow up and move out of home. It is a big step like that – it feels like leaving home.”

Kvyat not surprised Vergne snubbed (Autosport)

“Already this year we can see that experience itself is not playing a big role for Jean-Eric. But he has been a fantastic benchmark for me.”

Where now for Caterham? (ESPN)

Manfredi Ravetto: “I can tell you it was very, very strange to me what happened with the Spanish team [HRT] after we left. Because they simply put it into liquidation, and to put an entry in liquidation? You can put a company in liquidation, but make sure the entry is somehow protected.”

Tweets

https://twitter.com/Mansell_Nigel/status/518417901246627840

Comment of the day

Chris thinks it’s not a given that if Alonso goes to McLaren, that means Button leaves:

Not sure Alonso to McLaren spells the end for Button. The statements of Button being outperformed by Magnussen are factually incorrect – he has only finished ahead of Button twice (When Button started seven places behind him in Australia thanks to the weather and finished on his gearbox, and when button got a DNF in Singapore).

Alonso and Button would be a quality partnership and exactly what Honda need. I would put then two together for two years together with a view to Bottas replacing Button afterwards.
Chris Lawson

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34 comments on “No place for Alonso at Mercedes – Lauda”

  1. Formula-I (@)
    5th October 2014, 5:29

    Come on Eric, make it Alonso-Button and McLaren will enjoy the results next year

    1. And ruin career of young guy who has proven himself time and again, matched and outraced Button consistently. Magnussen has proven to be fast this year. Button is consistent as always but will never do more than what car will allow him to. If they get Alonso they will have fast driver and experienced one as well. Button can be happy with his career, was almost out but came back and won championship.

      Fact is Dennis is not a fan of Button, and he is most likely to go. Now I know what happened with him and Alonso but remember in 2006 it was his idea to get Alonso and not Button because he knows who is faster among the two.

      1. Not exactly. Qualifying: sure. Race: hardly. Over one lap, Magnussen has shown some impressive skills but he makes far too many mistakes in the race and he needs to learn how to share the track with other drivers instead of forcing them off the track when it just wasn’t necessary and quite frankly, it’s bad sportsmanship.

        He still has a lot to learn but he knew he was jumping into a McLaren and the exceptations need to be high and his racing hasn’t lived up to that.

        1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
          5th October 2014, 7:47

          @mattypf1 – It’s his first year in F1. That’s what he’s doing.. Learning. Dumb to yank out his 2nd year, especially if he shows he has pace (which he does).

          1. “F1 should not be a finishing school, you come to F1 when you are ready”-Mark Webber

            It can be bad for a driver’s career to get into F1 too early and it can be bad for the sport as well. There are exceptions and sometimes taking a risk pays off. But if you take a risk and get into a top seat early and you don’t perform right away then you might have burned your career.

      2. @nin13 “Outraced”

        You couldn’t be more wrong even if you tried.

        Alonso is hotter property than Button I must admit but the 2 together would be great. If I was Dennis, I’d give Button 1 more year, pair him with Alonso. Offer a TD role to Magnussen if he doesn’t get poached.

        Magnussen seems to be very accident prone, whether this erratic behaviour is due to him wanting to prove himself, I don’t know, but it must be quelled.

    2. I think it’s obvious that in Alonso joins Mclaren, the guy leaving will be Button.

      Ron has accused Button of slacking, and said he expects more out of him anyway. And, Button spends most of his time these days trying to justify why he still has a seat at Mclaren.

      Button says he has experience, but let’s face it, Alonso brings experience along with the racing prowess that Jenson lacks

      Looking forward to Magnussen and Alonso at Mclaren next year.

      Honda better deliver!

  2. Oh dear, someone should teach some spelling for Nigel. Those tweets are horrible to read.

    Interesting comments from Dennis regarding engine parity. Isn’t the ECU supplied by McLaren to all teams; can’t they figure out their own software?

    1. Am i missing something? I see no spelling mistake.

      1. “*hardy* any seat”

    2. Twitter only allows for 140 characters or less

    3. Wolff replie: “I wouldn’t even want to use the terminology ‘source code,’ because it doesn’t make any sense. They have been our most valuable customer in the past, and a great team, and they are switching to a competitor in Honda, and obviously we are pretty aware of that.”

      Which reads to me as a heavy hint that Mercedes obviously aren’t going to feed McLaren a wealth of information they will simply pass on to a competitor, Honda. The bit about ‘best engines’ doesn’t appear in the article, not sure where that comes from.

  3. cotd: I wonder how much say Honda is going to have in the new McLaren deal. It would be interesting if Honda plays a role in keeping Button.

  4. Yup, exactly COTD! I couldn’t agree more with you. I’d do the same (if McLaren really wants to move up the order). Bottas might be keeping an eye on RB(if one of the young driver fails to deliver),
    Merc(if Lewis leaves after 2015), Or who knows he might just help Williams come on top and fight for championship there itself. :)

  5. I don’t think the COTD is correct. I don’t think Alonso-Button partnering at McLaren can do much good in the long term. McLaren decided to kick Perez out in other to give their little superstar a car. Why would they chose JB before him? Not a chance. Magnussen’s place in McLaren is secured… JB, as much as I like him, is “past it” in McLaren’s eyes… 5 very good years together, but things need to change one day.

    1. +1
      keeping Button wouldn’t make much long-term sense for McLaren, but they need to improve the car as well to satisfy Alonso and Honda has to make a power package at Merc level.

    2. @fer-no65 @palle
      Neither Alonso or Button would make sense in the long term, Alonso is only one years younger than Button. I think they should have put Magnussen in another car to learn the tools of the trade, and if they want to maximise the constructor points they should park him for 2015 either in another team or make him 3rd driver and give him some FPs. Alonso-Button would get a local optimum as long as they are on the level they are now.

      It is clear, that right now Magnussen cant fill Buttons shoes. Sometimes he is fractionally faster in qualy, but rarely mathces Buttons race pace, and on top of that he makes too mutch mistakes.
      If you look at the points, Jenson has more than double of Kevins. Magnussen lost at least 30 points due to his own mistakes. If we assume, that the cars could finish every race next to each other Kevin left 36 points on the table, while Jenson lost 4 points to the team only in one event, in Austria. Should we count Spa, where Kevin overlooked the teams interest and lost Jenson a place by forcing him off the road, and Singapore, where Jenson was on the verge to get 5th-6th, they would be in shouting distance to Ferrari.

      All-in-all, I dont think Magnussen is the better option for now. Button usually gets branded as medicore, but he is still better than most of the grid, and as Ron says McLaren always wants the best avaible drivers in their team. Right now those are Alonso and Button.

      1. Well said!
        Mag might also get a chance to hone his skills in a team with lesser pressure.

  6. Lauda is going to regret his comments. Not because of the opinion it iself but because unfortunately for him there’s a big chance his boy Lewis might not be as predictable as he wants him to be. Lewis could try to emulate his hero as Seb did. Why not make my own story or my own new gen of F1? No lets just try to dig up the past.

    1. @peartree Lewis would have to be extremely stupid to leave Mercedes now. They have the best car and the best way to “emulate” someone in F1 is picking up titles and with the available information Mercedes is the place to be.

      The Alonso-to-Mercedes story has always been a fantasy “Made In Spain”. There’s nothing Alonso can bring to Mercedes that Lewis can’t. Performance wise they’re paired and the upside for keeping Lewis is because he monopolizes the media attention and for a global brand like Mercedes that’s music to their ears.

  7. Manfredi Ravetto keeps going on about the teams F1 entry, maybe the owners of Caterham aren’t bothered about being on the grid next year and are just looking to sell their entry slot to other interested parties at the end of the season. If this is the case then who? Forza Rossa?

  8. It’s normal.

  9. I think Toto Wolff’s final comment in the Guardian article pretty much confirms it. They’re holding vital engine info back from McLaren – if not other customers too

    1. ooops – that was the Adam Coopers blog, not Guardian :)

    2. As cited above, why would Mercedes want to hand over information to Honda?
      I don’t get what the issue is. Surely the engine contracts cover what the customer does or doesn’t get. If Merdedes are breaching contract, why don’t McLaren sue? If it’s not covered, well, tough, surely?

  10. Button smashed Magnussen today, I think that showed how much Magnussen has to learn.

    I think its fair to say that Button is at least for the next year the better option. I think if Mclaren can they’ll rent Magnussen out to Sauber or someone and go with Alonso and JB.

    They keep going on about Buttons qualifying, bpoinut ts are handed out on Sunday and he has a lot more points.

  11. Alonso will wait to see if the Mercedes line up becomes untenable (another collision and falling out would do it). If nothing happens, he’ll sign for McLaren.

  12. Hahaha Nikki Lauda!

    He’s right though, Alonso could tear the Merc Team apart if he’s not given preferential treatment.

  13. Ron Dennis is in great position here.

    RBR have already confirmed Daniil, at this point Alo needs Mac more than they need him. Moving to any other team would be counterproductive.

    The HULK also does not seem to be Hot Property right now.

  14. Does anyone know how it happened that Ferrari confirmed Vet before Alo had found a home?

    1. It didn’t. They didn’t.

      The only things that have been confirmed/publically announced so far is Vettel leaving Red Bull and Kvyat taking his seat. Ferrari haven’t confirmed anything yet.

  15. Two things: Ron, you need to sort out your aero; accusing Mercedes makes you look ridiculous.

    Secondly, Button’s time has passed. In his interviews he shows so little energy and seems to be disinterested in developing the car. The question is, does Alonso have the patience to develop the car either?

Comments are closed.