Alonso laps teammate. Why?

[Peter Mallett]

There y'go then. Thanks V. It ilustrates the point that with a clear track you (or at least a good driver) can maintain consitency. Might be interesting to see both Trulli's and Mickey's times to see how they fluctuated.

[Zaius]

Originally posted by Rossi # 46
Why can a footballer be man of the match one week, yet have an ordinary game the next?

Because they are all human and have off days. It just so happens that while Trulli was having an off day, Alonso was having the best race of his career.

I understand that some drivers can have better days than others. My real concern was about the way Alonso maintained lap times that Trulli never touched, even once or twice. If I had seen Trulli pull one or two laps that maybe touched on Alonso's times, then I might have dismissed his slower pace as defending a position, or having a bad day. The fact that it seemed impossible for Trulli to squeeze out once from his car what Alonso was squeezing out all race is what prompted my curiosity. After reading many of the intelligent posts (wonderful board you've got here by the way), I have learned that the difference between a good and a mediocre setup can mean the world in a race, even on the same (team) cars.

[Knowlesy]

I'm sorry, but even the most one-eyed Renault fan can't stick up for Trulli. He is at Renault because his manager happens to be the team boss as well. Alonso is only there because of this reason also, except that he has proved he is a world beater and he won't need Flavs help any longer!

It explains why the Jenson, who flattened Trulli in 2002, was dropped and why Fisi, who flattened Jenson in 2001, was dropped.

I do wonder what Mark Webber thinks of Trulli consistently being given the Renault seat.........

[Peter Mallett]

I am definitely not a Trulli fan but people still don't seem to acknowledge the facts. Irrispective of the driver if you are defending a position you always compromise your lap times. Look at JPM. When he had a completely clear track he set the lap record.

Its normal racing "physics" and Alfonso had clear track all day (except for lappery) so all he had to do was keep it smooth and quick.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Its normal racing "physics" and Alfonso had clear track all day (except for lappery) so all he had to do was keep it smooth and quick.

So true.

And of course not only does having a clear track allow you to lap to your best you can be smooth and look after your tyres (etc...) more. Allowing you to continue to lap faster longer into your stint.

This doesn't explaint he whole lap. Alonso drove excently and IMO would have been quite a few seconds ahead of Trulli anyway. However not being stuck in traffic probably explains the majority of the gap to Trulli.

[Peter Mallett]

Agreed. But then we can look at the previous race. I think the track made the gap more in Germany. Had Monty been in that position in Hungary he'd probably heve been a similar distance ahead. Whereas if Alfonso was leading clearly in Germany I suspect his lack of power would have pegged the gap back

We'll never know but maybe this does highlight the differences between the Williams' and the Renaults.

[Dino IV]

Originally posted by knowlesy
I'm sorry, but even the most one-eyed Renault fan can't stick up for Trulli. He is at Renault because his manager happens to be the team boss as well. Alonso is only there because of this reason also, except that he has proved he is a world beater and he won't need Flavs help any longer!

It explains why the Jenson, who flattened Trulli in 2002, was dropped and why Fisi, who flattened Jenson in 2001, was dropped.

Speaking of one-eyed, 'the' Jenson was more like 'flattened' by Trulli in 2002. Your explanation is far from the truth as it had more to do with financial reasons. Both Fisi and Trulli had contracts which - beside negative aspects like binding their careers to Flavio almost forever, instead of free to roam the driver market (the reason why Pizzonia told him to shove a similar proposal in some dark place ..) - did their respective talents justice. They had cumulative contracts which nearly doubled their salaries each season. As Flavio's career planning isn't as good as his own financial planning he was facing two very expensive drivers which earned way in excess of $10 million. Similar to Villeneuve now earning almost $25 million because of his BAR contract. That was the real reason behind the driver swap, to break open the contracts and renew them with more moderate salaries. As if driver seats in teams have so much to do with talent ... then Fisi would have led the way at Ferrari long before TGF vetoed him.