Fernando Alonso’s Formula 1 career deserved a better end than this.
Barring an unforeseen comeback (and far stranger things have happened) the history books will record he signed off with six consecutive no-scores. He took the chequered flag at his penultimate race in 17th position, equalling the worst result of his career.Was the McLaren MCL33 capable of much better in 2018? It’s doubtful. Stoffel Vandoorne failed to qualify it higher than Alonso did in 21 attempts. The gap varied between a few hundredths of a second to days like in Singapore where Alonso blew his team mate away by eight tenths of a second.
It’s easy to forget that Alonso led the midfield championship battle for the first seven races of the year. In Australia the car was quick enough for him to run within touching distance of the front-runners. He even got ahead of Max Verstappen and held the Red Bull off until the chequered flag.
In the races Alonso was as consistent, quick and combative as ever. However he was increasingly frustrated by the antics of those he shared the lower end of the midfield with, particularly when the Williams drivers wiped him out in Azerbaijan and Japan. The former was a prelude to an epic recovery drive in a badly damaged car, which culminated in him passing Lance Stroll’s Williams – which had a considerable straight-line speed advantage – for seventh place on the final lap.
Car trouble caused a point-less spell but he returned to the top 10 at the Red Bull Ring, passing the Saubers and Pierre Gasly on his way to eighth. He repeated that result at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, but by this point in the season McLaren had uncovered a fundamental problem with their MCL33.
Fernando Alonso | |
|---|---|
| Beat team mate in qualifying | 21/21 |
| Beat team mate in race | 10/13 |
| Races finished | 15/21 |
| Laps spent ahead of team mate | 773/938 |
| Qualifying margin | -0.38s |
| Points | 50 |
As the team turned their attention to 2019 and fell behind their rivals in the development race, the pickings became slimmer. In the final races it was clear Alonso’s commitment had waned.
This was most obvious in his swansong performance at Yas Marina when he was told on the radio the points were in sight, and he relied he’d got enough already. He then proceeded to cut the same corner three times, making good on his early season promise to do exactly that, though it was a futile and pointless gesture.
Alonso’s final visit to the points came in Singapore, where he saw off the midfielders and finished with only representatives from the ‘big three’ ahead of him. As all of them took the chequered flag, he therefore came in seventh.
That result bore out his frequent criticism of the state of competition in F1 at the moment. Alonso was not at all shy about heaping praise on his efforts. But it was hard to argue with the results, or that he could have done a lot better with a quicker car.
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Over to you
Crazy to think that a driver with the eight or ninth-quickest car on the grid even had a shot at taking the best of the rest title. It was absolutely incredible that every race weekend Alonso was outperforming the car in qualifying and fighting tooth and nail with cars over half a second a lap quicker than them for points. It’s a shame we didn’t see him in a better car this season. His 21-0 record in qualifying over Vandoorne is a testament to just how consistently fast Alonso is on every race weekend.
@Todfod
What’s your verdict on Fernando Alonso’s 2018 season? Which drivers do you feel he performed better or worse than? Have your say in the comments.
Add your views on the other drivers here:
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MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
17th December 2018, 7:46
It’s a Yoke!
Yeah, I think there is an awful lot of assumption in there.
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 8:18
Fitting description, @mrboerns. Alonso & Vandoorne labouring like crazy pulling that plough of a car behind them.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
17th December 2018, 8:53
So, is this the final time Alonso dragged on to a result he shouldn’t have gotten ?
A*
17th December 2018, 9:39
I think this is about right for Alonso. Far easier to look good when competing against the likes of Vandoorne & other back markers as opposed to consistently fighting the better drivers at the sharp end e.g. Ham, Vet, Ric, Max etc. Far easier to put in good displays when there is no pressure, nothing to lose, as opposed to Ham & Vet under the pressure of a title fight. And he did make some glaring mistakes and got involved in some crashes and petty squabbles
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
17th December 2018, 11:22
Glaring mistakes… Tell me one ‘glaring’ mistake, not even accounting for the mistakeS …
Luke S (@joeypropane)
17th December 2018, 14:43
Only glaring mistake Fred made was signing for McLaren in the first place…
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 10:07
‘yoke’ vs ‘joke’
@mrboerns
Todfod (@todfod)
17th December 2018, 10:10
@mrboerns
I don’t know. Hopefully it’s the last of your comments on it.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
17th December 2018, 11:32
@mrboerns
Couldn’t agree more! With that dog of a car he really proved he’s able to pull outstanding performances indeed, thanks for pointing this out.
It’s probably not the last time, however.
Jake
18th December 2018, 0:01
onto
Shimks (@shimks)
30th December 2018, 16:49
Nice one, @coldfly. Funny comment! But it looks like you’ve sown the seeds of frustration for @todfod.
ColdFly (@)
30th December 2018, 19:11
thanks, @shimks.
As you’ve probably noticed most of my comments are light-hearted or sarcastic.
Double fun! First when sharing; and then seeing the responses of people who missed it ;)
Chaitanya
17th December 2018, 7:54
His performance in Baku with that horrible car was highlight of season. Also his overtake move in China was quite a bit personal.
Matn
17th December 2018, 18:46
“His performance in Baku with that horrible car was highlight of season”
Stroll finished 8th, right behind Alonso
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:09
Stroll had probably a better car in baku, didn’t he? And no puncture?
Neil (@neilosjames)
17th December 2018, 8:01
He’d have been in my top four too, probably top three. Consistently performed at a very high level, even when he was hopping in and out of F1 to compete in WEC.
As the opening sentence says… he deserved better than the MCL33.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
17th December 2018, 8:21
True. It’s weird to read driver rankings article when it only makes you sad about McLaren progress over the year.
David
17th December 2018, 13:02
You mean regress?
Fred
17th December 2018, 8:16
Probably should be number one.
Lewis will only get it because he had the best car…
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 8:21
Welcome to race fans.com, Fred.
It’s an honour to have you here, and good luck in WEC and Indy500.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th December 2018, 8:26
@coldfly – LOL, didn’t see that at first, but yes, username checks out ;-)
MaliceCooper
17th December 2018, 9:11
The three drivers ahead all refused to follow team orders ;-)
torrit (@torrit)
17th December 2018, 10:09
@ coldfly @phylyp how is it related? I’ve always thought it’s short for Frederick or Alfred.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th December 2018, 10:37
@torrit – Fred has been used as a humourous nickname by the English TV commentators, and it has grown on fans as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/INDYCAR/comments/6bvvil/what_do_think_fernandos_nickname_should_be_in_the/
A*
17th December 2018, 9:31
@Fred
“Lewis will only get it because he had the best car…”
Hamilton had a good car, but Vettel’s car was about even, with better reliability. Read any expert analysis on the W09 & SF71H, and they all conclude it was close to equal.
Hamilton will probably get it because he made few mistakes, won races that he really shouldn’t have e.g.Germany, Italy etc, and held up under the title pressure far better than Vettel. He deserves number 1 spot, for beating a 4xWDC, in equalish machinery, so convincingly.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:13
Vettel is starting to make me think that even multiple titles don’t mean much. Let’s say hamilton beat a fast driver who made a lot of mistakes, could’ve been verstappen too that he beat, given how vettel drove.
Joao (@johnmilk)
17th December 2018, 9:57
Yeah Fred, but you crashed in Suzuka during free practice, look where Hulk is placed because of it, so don’t complain too much.
Looking at you Gasly and Perez too
Fred
17th December 2018, 21:48
I’m the CHAMP!
Uncle Brown promised!
Szakfer (@)
17th December 2018, 8:49
Don’t get the hype about the 21-0.Vandoorne was stone last (or 19th) in quali for the majority of the season.Ocon and Vettel blew away much higher rated teammates 17-4,yet Keith’s ranking doesn’t really show it.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
17th December 2018, 9:40
@szakfer97 Is Vandoorne really rated lower than Ericsson? I don’t think so, and you can’t improve on a 21-0 score, so for all we know, had the season lasted 40 races for instance, it could have been 40-0, while Leclerc, Vettel etc. might get some score in the high 20s/low 30s.
Hadzhiev (@hadzhiev)
17th December 2018, 9:13
My Number 1 driver in 2018.
PeterPegasus
17th December 2018, 9:19
I have been looking forward to these driver rankings for a long time and I’m pretty disappointed. It’s okay if we disagree on the ranking, but it’s a real bummer that Keith doesn’t provide good reasoning on the ranking. This was particularly evident in Perez’ and Vandoorne’s assessments, I thought.
In terms of Alonso, I can’t see how he can be rated behind Leclerc. I don’t see any kind of criticism here – in fact, from what I can tell from this article Alonso didn’t let a single point get to waste this season. I think he’s been absolutely phenomenal, and the stuff he pulled off in Azerbaijan or maybe even Singapur should be stuff of legends. Leclerc was pretty fantastic this year no doubt, but he did have a lacklustre first 3 races, and just like with Verstappen that shouldn’t be discounted.
Alonso easily gets my #2 spot.
Ok, enough critcism, I still love these driver rankings, keep them coming!
frood19 (@frood19)
17th December 2018, 10:19
It’s subjective, which is good for lively debate. I’d be very surprised if there was a consensus list, in which all drivers ranked the same. we love them because we disagree, haha!
if you want an objective list, check out f1metrics – particularly good if you’re into maths.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
17th December 2018, 11:36
Leclerc is ranked higher probably because:
1. he was a rookie (and very very young)
2. he brought home some results that the Sauber didn’t seem capable of in previous years (*this ofcourse is a questionable point, as the car has improved a lot this season, and Ericcson is not really a great benchmark)
PeterPegasus
17th December 2018, 18:32
I don’t see how 1. should factor into this. He’s getting kudos for being the best rookie of the year anyway.
2. This is mostly true for Alonso as well. Imagine where McLaren would be with 2 Vandoornes this season.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2018, 22:05
@gechichan
I don’t factor experience in for any of the drivers, so Leclerc being a rookie isn’t relevant here.
Todfod (@todfod)
17th December 2018, 9:21
I actually had Alonso in #3 ahead of Leclerc. I thought he was mighty in the first part of the season when the car was capable of points finishes.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
17th December 2018, 11:37
Same here, Alonso has been absolutely outstanding.
Ken
17th December 2018, 18:02
Agree..
Ross (@dejavous)
17th December 2018, 9:26
So Leclerc is in the top 3. In a car that was quicker than the Mclaren for most of the year, he often found himself racing Alonso and occasionally being beaten by Ericsson who on his best day isn’t talented enough to justify a spot on the F1 grid. It’s hard to rank the drivers and to choose between Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen in particular would be tough, but Leclerc has no place at all in that discussion.
Not that anyone cares but Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen in that order were the standout performers of the season for me.
Manuel Falcao (@mfalcao)
17th December 2018, 9:41
Mine was Hamilton, Verstappen, and Alonso. Leclerc is a bit high, had a solid season, but that Sauber was not as bad as people tough, it was regularly the 5th fastest car and Leclerc didn’t get the points the car was capable I think.
He is quite young, and still has much to learn, he will only go up from here, so that’s a bit high of a ranking for him this year.
DJ
17th December 2018, 11:49
@dejavous @mfalcao
But VER didn’t even beat his teammate.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
17th December 2018, 9:44
1. Hamilton
2. Verstappen
3. Alonso
4. Leclerc
5. Vettel
6. Ricciardo
7. Hulkenberg
8. Perez
9. Ocon
10. Raikkonen
11. Sainz
12. Bottas
13. Magnussen
14. Gasly
15. Grosjean
16. Vandoorne
17. Ericsson
18. Hartley
19. Stroll
20. Sirotkin
That’s my rankings for 2018.
Jim
18th December 2018, 0:02
I would move VER back to 4. LeClerc had less screwups.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:17
Yes, same, so disappointed verstappen ended up 2nd in this site’s ranking and he’s my current favourite driver, but mistakes are mistakes, and loads.
At least hulkenberg where you put him makes a lot more sense.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th December 2018, 9:55
The driver of the season at getting the most out of a not-so-competitive car, which allowed him to finish relatively close to being the best-of-the-rest in an inferior machinery to those around in the standings, in fact, he could’ve even completed the season in P7 on the WDC standings had Mclaren remained similarly competitive throughout the season to what they were in the early races.
KGN11
17th December 2018, 10:13
I see the Alonso sympathy epidemic has spread to this site too.
I see ppl quoting his performance at Baku, which just like Bottas in 2017 was clearly aided by the safety car. The guy spent the entire year dissing his sport and his team and he said in the top 4, ahead of Vettel. KMT!
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th December 2018, 17:09
There’s NOBODY that could have gotten more out of that dog of a car than Alonso did. Nobody.
David BR (@david-br)
17th December 2018, 17:50
Says Alonso.
Personally I think number 4 is a bit nonsensical. Every time I looked, Alonso seemed to be making some mistake or tangling with someone. Applied to the other top-rated drivers in the list and they’d be heavily demoted (Vettel being a case in point). So basically we don’t know really have any measure on how well he drove the car, given the team mate competition, and his races can be as messy he likes, and he was under no pressure to achieve anything anyhow. That way it’s kind of easy.
KGN11
17th December 2018, 18:52
It’s funny how all Vettel’ mishaps were used as reasons to drop him down the rankings, but not so for Max or Leclerc.
David BR (@david-br)
17th December 2018, 22:04
I’d have Vettel higher given that he took the fight to Hamilton and Mercedes (contrast with Raikkonen). In terms of mistakes, he probably made the same or fewer than Verstappen. Leclerc impressed me – except for wet weather conditions. Maybe a car issue. That’s one I want to see next year. Verstappen, there’s no way he merits number 1 driver, and I’m presuming his not here :) But where to place him is difficult. I kind of soured with his performance over the season after initially thinking he was being over criticized. A bit unlikely maybe, but it’s not impossible that Ferrari have a great car next season and Leclerc becomes champion. The effect on MV would be ‘epic’ I’m sure.
KGN11
17th December 2018, 18:51
@jblank
We don’t know, because only 2 ppl drove that car.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th December 2018, 19:08
Well based on ability and history, do you think it’s likely the car was holding them back or the drivers? Pretty obvious it was the car, to me.
Tim M (@tim-m)
17th December 2018, 19:30
@kgn11, that’s funny to me, because I find the exact opposite to be true here. I don’t have a horse in this race. As you might expect on this site, there are a few fervent fan commenters for many of the drivers, and some general detractors. I find the anti-Alonso narrative in the comments here to be distracting at times. I’d venture that there are as many commenters here who go out of their way to post negative things about Alonso as there are blind fans.
Jon
17th December 2018, 23:57
You really have a hard on for Alonso judging from the volume of negative posts you write when his name is involved.
I suggest you let it go – you not going to change the views of those for or against Alonso and it will eventually affect your health negatively if it hasn’t already.
Life is good:)
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
17th December 2018, 10:18
It just goes to show what a long season does to an old blokes memory.
I had thought that Alonso had been entirely unremarkable all season until I read Keith’s summary.
Even so, I still think his best days are long gone and his rating is a bit high, but I’ll concede he did better than I recalled initially.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
17th December 2018, 10:44
Maybe I’m in the minority but I thought this was one of the most anonymous seasons from Alonso. Did have a good season but 4th? I think that’s as overrated as Alonso thinks of himself.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:20
I’d have put him 2nd, he got more points than leclerc in a car that was overall worse than the sauber, and, perhaps some people forget, but early in the season he had MORE POINTS than verstappen in a car 1,5 sec slower!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th December 2018, 10:56
To me, this behaviour was something that grated on me a lot, and I was happy he was handed a penalty. It just seems disrespectful. You don’t like the sport? Fine, move on and take your talents elsewhere. Don’t keep criticizing the sport in a manner that is inversely proportional to the odds of getting a top drive, it just reveals the hypocrisy.
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 11:01
I hope @Keithcollantine reveals #3 today.
Imagine if he only reveals #3 & #2 tomorrow. Tuesday will be a sleepless night for most of us due to the anxiety of not knowing who will top the ranking this year.
Cranberry
17th December 2018, 12:00
Unpopular opinion, but here it goes:
Alonso is not just a poisonous element to team morale and chemistry between the people working around him, and with him; he is also a mediocre car developer at best. During all his years at Ferrari he never managed to be the kind of no.1 driver, that the team R&D could use to build the best car on the grid. In fact, the performance of Ferrari declined steadily year, after year, while they developed the car around Alonso.
To be a champion, you have to have a champion’s car. Hamilton is often praised for “knowing” that Mercedes will be a team of the future, however, I doubt it would be such a strong car if Hamilton was as bad at car development as Alonso. Mercedes have far more going for them than just horsepower.
I don’t think it is coincidence that Renault started improving after he left the team to go for Ferrari, or that Ferrari suddenly started going upwards at a steady pace after they fired him, and made sure everyone knew about it. First thing Arrivabene did when he took over the team was to very publicly get rid of Alonso, I wonder why.
Alonso has self-damaged his own career for many years and his 2007 stint at McLaren is a glimpse of what, or who, is the most at fault for Alonso not having a competitive drive for the vast majority of his career.
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 14:01
I don’t know if he is any good at driving car development.
It’s still a fact though that Renault has only been WCC twice (’05 & ’06) and that was after being 7th the year before Alonso joined them in ’02 as test driver (or 4th in ’02). But maybe it was Trulli (Villeneuve/Fisichella) who did all the car development and Alonso just cruised it to victory :P
Always tough when facts don’t support your hypothesis, Cranberry.
Biggsy
18th December 2018, 0:18
People like to talk about drivers having this or that effect, but the truth is, they can’t really do much besides driving the car and, at best, talking some good engineer into joining the team.
Other than that, it’s all about the team management and the engineers.
Benetton (Renault) definitely was trading water in the 2000-2002 period, but remember, that it wasn’t just Alonso who joined them.
Renault bought the team and brought Flavio back in 2001, started investing and setting up a phenomenal team. Alonso was just the final magic ingredient. He was great, and I still rate him as the best driver of the past 20 years, but being that, without the team being on the level, you are just going to be a runner up at best, as we saw.
Renault rebuild a whole team, and was steadily improving between 2001 and 2004, and finally, in 2005 they were ready. They had Flav, Simonds, Bob Bell, Dino Toso, Mark Smith, Mike Gascoyne, Rob Marshall, Nick Chester etc. Alonso was with the team the whole way. Joining at the end of 2001 as a test driver, testing through out the whole 2002, and then joining the racing team for 2003. He was already phenomenal in 2003, taking pole in the second race already, and winning in Hungary in a dominant fashion. 2004 was good for him, in terms of teaching him to deal with frustration a bit and making him mature, before 2005, when the car was ready for WDC.
For me, 2006 and 2012 are still absolute magic.
I remember being Kimi and Montoya fan since 2002-2003, and hating Alonso in 2005, but he literally converted me with his season opener in 2006. That battle with MSC in Bahrain was something else. And then, going on the full season without a single mistake, is something I’m still glad I’ve witnessed. 2007 was hard to watch. He really needed someone to give him a better perspective of how to go about the controversies and the issues he was encountering, but both Dennis, and Alonso’s own management failed him.
But he still found a way to come back even stronger. Those years in between 2007 and 2012 made him grow, and the driver we saw in 2012 was probably the most inspired season long effort from any driver I have ever seen, made even better for the fact that he was always fighting against the odds.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:23
Yes, he made mistakes in 2006 but not point-costing, for example an excursion in china early in the race, schumacher made some points-costing mistakes which eventually could’ve made him champion otherwise, reliability was similar.
Cranberry
18th December 2018, 11:17
Was that not the period when Renault had the tuned mass dampers in their cars? They had a key innovation that other teams could only guess about, since unlike aero, their secret weapon was not visible from outside the cars. And I never said he NEVER had a competitive car, he did so when he just happened to land in one at the beginning of his career.
I am not doubting his ability to turn the wheel and make the car go fast, but there is reason to suspect that as far as using Alonso’s feedback and natural tendencies/priorities in car handling, is not something a team of engineers can use as a foundation for a strong/fast car. Every team Alonso has ever been in has, at best, remained stationary in terms of performance, if not steadily declined backwards.
Until his McLaren days I was a strong believer in his ability to assist engineers in car development, buf after his return to Renault he never was able to assist a team in car development. It is since those McLaren days that top teams have been reluctant to bring Alonso in, because of his toxicity to team chemistry. So it only left him the option of going to a sinking McLaren and hopefully helping them build a strong car, which he can’t do. Like others have pointed out: engineering is what counts most, and I agree, but the driver can give good feedback that can quickly assist in diagnosing issues and resolving them.
KGN11
17th December 2018, 14:07
+1
RP (@slotopen)
17th December 2018, 12:04
I’m very disappointed to see Alonso below Verstappen and Leclerc. He drove very well, without the silly mistakes like Verstappen made. He drove well from the beginning, unlike Leclerc.
Would Alonso, driving the same season, have done better than them? Yes, he’d have beaten RIK to third in WDC.
ColdFly (@)
17th December 2018, 14:04
RIK, a mix between Raikkonen and Ricciardo, will top any popularity poll.
@slotopen
RP (@slotopen)
17th December 2018, 14:55
@coldfly
Ha! Indeed.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
17th December 2018, 12:07
I find it impossible to rank Alonso considering the car he had and the issues Vandoorne had. Assuming Vandoorne is as good as I still think he is, fourth is about right. As I always say, Alonso can be placed anywhere from 2nd to 8th with good reason – fourth this year is probably ok.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th December 2018, 12:32
I agree
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th December 2018, 12:49
Vandoorne aint exactly shining in FE now so who knows.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th December 2018, 13:00
Alonso scored 50 points in the McLaren – and that was with 6 retirements. He outqualified his teammate 21 out 21 times. In a way, you can say that he was never really pushed to the limit by a faster teammate which happens at other teams. Alonso could comfortably step out of the car each time and say “this was the maximum!!! one more meter ahead and the world would have exploded! You’re lucky I didn’t push more:-)”
We all expected Vandoorne or any other driver of at least pushing Alonso a little bit in 1 race. We have not seen this sort of 100% result in qualifying over 21 races from anyone and it’s very, very strange since Alonso is a great qualifier but not the quickest one as he has admitted himself.
It begs the following questions:
1. How many points was Alonso capable of scoring if he didn’t have the retirements and was pushed by a teammate
2. How many points could McLaren have scored? Were they capable of beating Renault which had 122 points?
3. What on earth happened to Vandoorne who was such a promising driver and somehow appeared like a complete disaster that couldn’t put a single lap together if his life depended on it? I seriously doubt he is that bad because he would never have been given a contract if that were the case.
His ranking depends on the answers to 1,2, and 3.
If Alonso outdrove a car that was only capable of 20 points to 50 points without pressure from his teammate, he deserves the #1 spot, period!
If Alonso drove a car that was capable of 65-70 points (without retirements) to 50 points with 6 retirements and no pressure from his teammate (he has to push himself), then he deserves a very high spot – #3 or #4. This also means that the McLaren was a mighty car this season (at least it was for Alonso)
If Alonso somehow meddled with Vandoorne’s chances of competing in F1 against him, then he deserves to be much lower and possibly the bottom spot or off the rankings altogether.
Ross (@dejavous)
17th December 2018, 14:37
Nobody can ‘outdrive’ a car, they can only extract closer to the maximum.
1. Alonso is IMO one of the few drivers who does not need a teammate to push him to extract his maximum. Even Lewis who is close to being the GOAT needed that motivation at times although this season he seems to finally be at the level his talent has long promised.
3. Vandoorne had a few bad outliers but in general was not too far off Alonso. Mclaren were openly giving him the upgrades second if only one part was available initially. On the weekends when they were in identical spec cars it was close.
Ross (@dejavous)
17th December 2018, 14:44
If you want a good demonstration of his talent, take a look at the stint stats from LeMans as @phylyp alluded to in an earlier comment. Over a single lap he was 4th quickest of the Toyota drivers, over a full stint he was head and shoulders ahead of them all. His ability to be at a consistently high level is what sets him apart.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th December 2018, 17:11
Exactly!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:28
Interesting comment, michael, I agree, I think alonso should be around 2nd in the rankings, he extracted about the most he could from that car, only hamilton did that with the championship on the line, more to lose, etc., so would still give him the number 1, but there’s no saying alonso couldn’t have beaten hamilton with equal car, it’s not like 2007 is gospel, and even if it were, they seemed evenly matched, and hamilton was excellent in his rookie year already.
Garns (@)
17th December 2018, 13:03
Alonso is a great driver, one of he GOAT, but I think is a tad too high.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th December 2018, 13:09
A couple of clarifications:
: in comparison to the general perception that the McLaren is one of the bottom cars
: I’m not suggesting anything, I’m just saying that Alonso is not a saint and Vandoorne’s incompetence at all tracks over an entire season begs the question of “what happened” especially when the car appears to be a competitor to Renault for P4 in the WCC.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th December 2018, 13:13
Oops, that was meant as a reply to my post before garns’s post. Sorry!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:30
Yes, with 2 drivers like alonso, say alonso and hamilton since we had the example in 2007, mclaren could’ve fought with renault for the best of the rest championship, but renault was still a better car and there’s no question that, although their drivers were decent, they wouldn’t have been at the same level as the mclaren drivers.
Racingman3000 (@racingman3000)
17th December 2018, 13:17
Wow how unexpected, an F1 journalist site kneeling down to lord Fernando, god this is getting pathetic.
BMF66
17th December 2018, 15:10
I do think the “journalism” here is pathetic. This site is only good for some quick news.
Alonso is great though, that’s not the writers fault.
big joe
17th December 2018, 22:08
@racingman3000
ridiculous comment . Lewis went off the boil without tire advantage earlier in season and off the boil again when he lost power advantage at altitude. Alonso was as consistant as ever. Verstappen has F1 sewn up for the next decade with a car as good as Lewis’
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th December 2018, 0:31
Wouldn’t count mexico against hamilton, he still did the best his bad car in that track allowed, I would count against him especially canada and china, being outperformed by a normal bottas isn’t great.
Michal (@michal2009b)
17th December 2018, 16:54
Should be second behind Hamilton. He outqualified Vandoorne every single time, drove some great races, made no major mistakes and gave McLaren a position in WCC which they clearly doesn’t deserve. Verstappen is ranked ahead of him but look at those incidents especially at the beginning of the season, it has to count as well. Leclerc was also slow to get up to speed and struggled in wet. Still better than team bosses whom ranked Vettel ahead of Alonso and Leclerc close to Raikkonen.
xman
17th December 2018, 17:47
Best driver ever
Dirk
17th December 2018, 18:05
I think the drivers know just a bit more about ALO than you so I will side will them.
Jeff
17th December 2018, 18:08
Lewis, is that you?
BNKracing (@bnkracing)
17th December 2018, 21:50
The guy didn’t even try the last few races and probably retired some races just because the car was so horrible. Ranked way too high
big joe
17th December 2018, 22:05
Nice to see the best driver get recognized despite having rubbish cars. Lewis no longer looked so great when he didn’t have tire advantage at begining of season or power advantage at altitude. Alonso has relentlessness like no other. Verstappen will take over from here.
Jim
18th December 2018, 0:57
I would argue VER does not belong in the top 3 – too many screw ups.
As far as Alonso goes, it’s all very simple. This is a British site and of course a fair number of those here are anti – Alonso. They feel it’s imperative to smear him for the McLaren debacle or Singapore or whatever they can cling onto to diss him. Truth is, most don’t like him because he’s too damn good – and he’s not one of their own.
What bothers them the most I assume is Alonso garners a lot of positive praise that extends well beyond his peers. He is an icon – he beat Schuey – twice. He is mentioned by many as one of the greatest drivers in F1 and beyond. And they don’t like that – it’s a hard pill to swallow.
To criticize his character is understandable as he is a prima donna as all the greats are but I think it’s comical when they try to suggest he is an overrated driver or claims such as Van Doorne’s car was purposely inferior and other drivel.
To make matters worse, he isn’t going away, at least as far away as they would like. On the bright side, them (and the media) will have more opportunities to criticize him.