Alonso/Hamilton struggles

Reasons why Alonso & Hamilton have struggled and contributed to a shocking F1 season.

1. Sebastian Vettel is only dominating the sport because of a dominant car and a truly underperforming and quite frankly embarrassing Mark Webber. If Alonso or Hamilton had been seated where Mark has been this season, there is no doubt we would be going to Abu Dhabi with the WDC still alive.

2. Whatever people say about the introduction of the Pirelli tyre, there is one point that I think is extremely important. It has made racing more exciting and more unpredictable, however the negative effect it has had upon two of the greatest drivers in F1 currently has had a catastrophic end result for the 2011 season. It is clearly evident that Alonso & Hamilton have been truly shocked and handcuffed as a result of the Pirelli tyre. A quote from Banbrotam in another topic backs up this idea -'It's interesting that F1's two best drivers, Alonso and Hamilton (simply because they are the most capable of the most jaw dropping racing) even seem to have had their F1 life kicked out of them so such is the insipid nature of today's F1'. . By negating the true speed and racing ability of these two previous world champions has enhanced the growing domination of Red Bull and in particular Vettel. Alonso and in particular Hamilton, have had their confidence completely taken away from them, as there natural racing instincts for aggression and speed are the complete opposite of the characteristics you currently need in F1 to succeed.

3. Conservation 'era' of F1. Conservation has become imperative within Formula 1 and is fundamental to any success achieved in F1 without being seated in the Red Bull. A quote from critical_mass - ''F1 is all about conservation, where tyre and fuel management are all that counts''. Conservation and the amount the drivers are having to do this season is the complete anti-thesis of Fernando & Lewis' driving styles, hence why 'they appear' to have had the stuffing and life completely drained from them this season. However, a driver who has benefitted from this 'era' of F1 is Jenson Button. Tyre management is hugely important and a skill that Jenson excels in. The importance of this matter has transformed Jenson into an ultra-competitive driver, who ultimately will beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton this season for the first time. It's funny how Jenson has completely or 'appeared' to outclass a driver of Lewis' ability and speed in the first season that tyre management plays more than a significant role in the outcome of the races.

4. DRS. The introduction of DRS (Drag-reduction system) is another important reason for the failings of two of the sports fastest and most aggressive drivers. This is an under-stated point which I think has had a detrimental impact upon the advantage these two great drivers once had. Fernando & Lewis, prior to the introduction were arguably the two most superior overtaking specialists among the F1 grid and they appeared to have a huge advantage compared to their rivals when passing or making aggressive manoeuvres through the field, thanks to their superior racing and overtaking skills. However, once the DRS had been introduced this negated that advantage considerably. DRS has made what once was an exciting, skill based manoeuvre which needed perfect timing, into a completely uncontested, no skill required and inevitable passing move which lacks any excitement to the viewer. The introduction has led to drivers who lacked the killer instinct and aggressive nature to overtake, now seen to be flourishing and losing little or no time behind a driver that they once did. An example of this has been Jenson Button. I'm not 'slating' Jenson Button, I'm just stating that the implementation of DRS has benefitted his smooth driving style hugely and has allowed him to pass drivers in an uncontested manner through DRS, which ultimately saves his tyres instead of contesting an overtake in previous years where harsh accelerating and braking would harm the tyre.

5. Qualifying Tyre. It's clearly evident that Alonso has struggled in qualifying this season and on a number of occasions has been outperformed by his teammate Felipe Massa. Hamilton has performed well during qualifying, however the effect that having too race in the first stint on the tyres you used to set your Q3 time has led to shocking consequences for Lewis and this was again evident on Sunday and in Korea & Japan. I don't know the current rules for next season regarding the 'differential' in qualifying and race tyres for next season, however it's a must for Lewis as he appears to 'take the life' out of his race tyre on saturday and it completely compromises his sunday races in stint 1.

All the above reasons have led to disappointing seasons for both Fernando & Lewis. It appears that the changes to F1 have impeded the 'pure' racing drivers and the natural speed. One thing is for certain, that Mark Webber will never be able to compete with Vettel, therefore it is imperative that Ferrari & Mclaren create a 2012 car that is a vast improvement upon this seasons, otherwise the Vettel domination will continue to happen. Thoughts?

Nice article John, very goor read. I have to say i agree with what you've said.

I heard rumours that Pirelli were going to redesign the tyres for next season, so they're a little bit more durable than they are now. As Pirelli feel they've gone too far the opposite way to what the bridgestones were like - can anyone confirm if this is going to be the case, or whether it was indeed just a rumour.

I fear that until something does change that Lewis and Fernando will continue to struggle and that Jenson and Vettel will continue how they are now.

As a Hamilton fan and im sure for the Alonso fans the future is going to be a little bleaker for us.

Agree with most if it John, except with your views on Mark Webber. In fact I go as far as to say in saying this: "One thing is for certain, that Mark Webber will never be able to compete with Vettel", you are wrong, as you only have to look to last season to see that Mark was very competitive. He only fell away at the last when his run of poor starts kicked-off, the off-throttle diffuser issue arose and of course he has the dislocated shoulder. All this while playing 2nd fiddle to Red Bull's favourite son - so much so that they were actually taking updates off of Mark's car and putting them on Seb's!

In my view, Webber is every bit as good a racer as Vettel and has proven it this season with his many quite breath-taking overtakes - and very rarely will he take someone out in the process unlike a few others. Although he, like Alonso and Hamilton, has suffered with the new Pirelli tyres - the proof is in the pudding of the lap times. Compare Webber's times at the start of a stint to those at the end - he's always dropping off. In fact, he suffers so bad at times he has resorted to using the harder tyre for the majority of the race on a few occasions. Couple that with the fact he has to play 2nd fiddle to Vettel and you have a dissapointing season overall.

Although, I am willing to admit, given all that, it still should have been better season for Webber than it has.

I've heard similar too Critical. I also heard they are speaking about making a tyre suitable only for quali and are speaking to the FIA working group about this as qualifying is a sham at the moment with people refusing to even go out at times.

I'm 100% against the DRS because it punishes the driver infront and if a driver in F1 cannot negotiate an overtake, he has no business in this sport.

Vettels domination this year is actually worse than all of Schumi's dominance in my opinion and people are waxing lyrical about him but i'm not convinced as are a lot of experts.

The Mclaren and Ferrari boys haven't suddenly become horrible drivers and the FIA need to look at themselves as they have destroyed the competitive nature of this sport with their endless tinkering with the rules.

Bring in quali tyres, get rid of the DRS, drivers should start a race on any tyre of their choice, ban flexi wings, flexi floors, blown, overblown and double diffusers, ban kers as well and lets see who the real racers are.

Before anyone says anything about Webber, he is currently being shafted by the team in favour of Vettel. Vettel has had a super reliable car this season whilst Webber has struggled with malfunctioning kers, power and other nonsense.

If this nonsense continues next season, I'll stick to motogp

Glad the majority of you enjoyed the article, just annoyed and disappointed at the outcome of this season and the way the rules & regs have had a negative effect upon the 'pure' racing drivers. I fear for a returning Kimi & Kubica as they are of the mould of Hamilton & Alonso and may too struggle to come to terms with F1 currently, will be interesting to see. I agree regarding the problems Webber's encountered this season with tyres, Kers & clear team bias towards Vettel but that was to be expected as the team is built for Vettel, as he is the future and they have nurtured him to 2x WDC. That's the reason they wont commit to getting a driver of the quality of Lewis or Kimi, as they could possibly upset the 'untouchable' reputation that the german has developed and could upset the harmony within the successful team.

I disagree with point 1. The title would have been over by now. Alonso or Hamilton would have won it ages ago

Pirelli have to fix the tyres, as much as it pains me to say it. However, with the diffuser thing that comes into effect next year, Red Bull should be slower but then again, Adrian the Mercenary will probably work around that as he does.

TSC wrote:I disagree with point 1. The title would have been over by now. Alonso or Hamilton would have won it ages ago

I agree with that. I just didn't want to say it. There's no doubt in my mind they would both beat Vettel, had they have been in a car so dominant as the RB is. Vettel's reputation, domination and 'untouchable' aura has been falsely 'enhanced' through the poor performance of Webber, however the debate regarding whether the support and backing towards Webber and his car still rages on.

This is getting tedious now.

Just because you keep saying something, doesn't make it true.

1. How about looking at it from the other point of view? Mark Webber has repeatedly proven himself a very capable racing driver. His career stats show that much. Calling him "embarrassing" just shows up your ignorance.

There is no way of proving it, but it seems obvious to be that Vettel is Red Bull's golden boy and that Webber is, as he himself said, very much their No.2 driver. I believe he could deliver better results if he were allowed to.

Even without that though I think Vettel is just on a different level to any other driver...with the possible exceptions of Alonso and Hamilton. However, whether they'd be as good as (or better than) him in a Red Bull, there is no way of knowing. To pretend otherwise is again just wishful thinking.


2. Tyres have NOTHING to do with either Alonso or Hamilton's problems. The Ferrari and McLaren simply aren't as good as the Red Bull. Deal with it.

In case you hadn't been keeping up with the commentary, the Pirellis have actually been MORE durable than expected at many races. Remember how Vettel made it through the Monaco GP only stopping once? There also haven't been the huge lap time discrepancies expected between the harder and softer compounds.


3. Conservation is a fact of F1, brought on by the realisation that the sport could not continue to operate in a climate of ever-spiralling costs. Its happened in football too, in case you hadn't noticed. Honda pulled out because of the costs and Renault were threatening to.

Teams have had to cut their cloth accordingly in order to survive and the engine, testing and other regs were brought in precisely to ensure components lasted longer and development costs were brought down. They were also meant to ensure the smaller teams didn't get left too far behind.

Again all teams have to deal with this and everyone (in theory at least) is operating under the same restrictions. Its up to the teams' technical departments to get the maximum performance from their equipment, to give their drivers the best chance of winning.

Are you saying you want the FIA and FOTA to re-write the rulebook, or go back to the days of unlimited spending, just so your favourite driver MIGHT have a better chance of winning? Good luck with your petition!


4. DRS. How long had F1 fans AND DRIVERS complained about the near-impossibility of overtaking for cars with marginal performance differences?

Aero technology has developed to the point where F1 cars turn the air into a hot, roiling mass of turbulence which totally disrupts the following cars' aerdynamics, reducing downforce and increasing tyre wear as they slide around in the lead car's wake.

This meant the majority of races over the course of a season were like the recent Indian GP...largely processional and boring.

DRS has provided a solution to this problem, affording drivers a temporary "boost", similar in effect to the systems they had back 20-30 years ago (with the obvious exception it can only be used in certain places).

Purists may hate it, but there's no denying it works well, if set up properly.



5. Qualifying tyres. While the concept goes against the current cost-saving ethos in F1, it might not be such a bad thing, as many teams, (not just McLaren) are choosing to limit their runs in Q3, in order to preserve sets of tyres for race day.

The fact remains however, tyre wear is largely down to the car's aero and chassis set-up, as well as the driver's driving style. A poorly set-up car, or overly-aggressive driving...or both...will wear the tyres out faster.

Having everyone start the race on fresh sets of tyres may not have the results you might expect.

shame alot of f1 fans disagree with you

Can I just say I'm not 100% anti-Vettel. It's not his fault he's been given a fantastic car and he's still had to win all the races he's won (albeit boringly).

McLaren have done superbly this season considering where their car was during winter testing and it should be acknowledged the work they have put in this season.

Ferrari have let themselves down, they haven't had a decent car since Massa was the world champion for 30 seconds in 2008. Since then, Massa's been way off the pace and Alonso has papered over the cracks by winning the occasional race but the fact is (and it pains me to say this because I can't stand the guy) that if it wasn't for Alonso, Ferrari would be nowhere.

So yes, due to the tyres, Seb has rolled this season, but you could argue he's faced very little competition from Ferrari and McLaren and Webber. And by the way, I refuse to acknowledge Webber is in the same car as Vettel. He's not. And the fact he took 2 poles from Seb this season is a miracle.

Sorry for my off topic rant, I'm not entirely sure what it was about.

Good article and completely agree with the tyre issues - been critical of this all season. It is taking the real racing out of F1 which is being proped up by DRS and it's no coincidence that the likes of Hamilton and Alonso have been reigned in this season. Tyre management always has and always should play a part in F1 but not to the extent it does currently because at the end of the day it's the ability to race the socks off a car that should always rule.

Super post Dyrewolf. Can't say there is much to disagree with there although I wouldn't say that the tyres have nothing to do with Hamilton's and Alonso's struggles, as they certainly are a factor. Although I'm more of the opinion that they should adapt rather than complain.

To be fair though i dont think any of them are complaining about the tyres. But will be interesting what next years tyres will be like and if/how they cope with them.

Maybe they should all follow Mr Vettel's idea from this year and actually visit the pirelli factory He was the only driver to do it and it's clearly worked a treat

Why did Vettel go and not Webber... hmm odd.

Maybe they should have all gone.

I am suprised Webber did not travel to the factory, however a visit by the McLaren or Ferrari drivers would of made absolutely no difference to Vettel's domination. In fact, Mclaren sent Gary Paffett to the Pirelli testing sessions didn't they, as they presumably thought that the Pirelli tyre would only have a 'slight' performance difference to that of the Bridgestone. How they were wrong.

Anyway Vettel has been in the dominant car and has rarely or never fully experienced this season what it is truly like to 'race' in the pack with these Pirelli Tyres. When he has experienced driving among the pack, look at the result of Nurburgring. Vettel has avoided any sort of wheel to wheel or attacking/defensive driving that Alonso, Button, Massa, Webber and without question Hamilton have experienced this season. The first few laps are the most important and crucial in F1 today. While Vettel leads from Turn 1, his rivals are aggressively attacking and defending their positions and as a result are considerably hurting their tyres, whereas Vettel isnt. Being in the clean air, avoiding 'actual racing' and the harsh accelerating and braking that comes with it, is imperative to the longevity of the tyre. Webber's main problem has been the 'starts' which are critical and are key to Vettel's success. By losing positions among the pack on the starting grid, negates all the speed advantage the Red Bull possesses and provides Webber with issues that Vettel rarely experiences and can be attributed to Webber's poor performances.

Vettel's formula has been simple:- get pole, get clean away in the race, manage the gap. He's executed it to perfection in almost every race. The key to breaking the cycle next season is for Mclaren and Ferrari to ensure their cars can match RB in quali and not just the race. It's starting to look like Mclaren have closed the gap on Saturdays and hopefully this will continue into next year and we'll have a much tighter season.

apparently whitmarsh believes lewis is struggling because of being beaten by button.
i dont believe thats the reason personally,and it annoys me that whitmarsh has come out and said that.
i really do not like whitmarsh.

supremeskills wrote:apparently whitmarsh believes lewis is struggling because of being beaten by button.
i dont believe thats the reason personally,and it annoys me that whitmarsh has come out and said that.
i really do not like whitmarsh.

Button was brought in by Whitmarsh and so it's much like a football manager gushing all over a successful signing. For the team constructor points are king and Kovi didnt deliver but Button has - so it's as if he's flaunting his judgement to his bosses and the public. When he says "lets talk about Jenson" what he is also saying is "lets talk about my judgement".

let's not turn this into a whitmarsh debate, we all knew a stupid article from the beeb was going to be released to counter the attention of lewis/massa and re-focus on the success of jenson. The important point is that this period of f1 which jenson is currently enjoying will all be forgotten come march. For all button's good work that he has achieved this season, no one remembers who came second in a particular season as dull as this one in 10 years time. lewis will come back strong next season and i just cant wait for lewis to reaffirm his position as no1 and without doubt whitmarsh will be there stating, 'what a great win lewis, my driver is world class and ive supported him blah blah blah'. With the promise of more durable tyres along with a differential between qualifying and race tyre next season, will lead to giving drivers like Hamilton and Alonso more confidence and speed and will ultimately result in much improved race performance.

[thumbs up]

Though when lewis is winning again, whitmarsh will say what he always says - "well done to lewis, great driver. But lets not forget about Jenson, he performed well today blah blah blah"

John wrote:shame alot of f1 fans disagree with you

Not too many on here that I can see.