World Championships are to be won by demonstrating driving excellence rather than by begging - either directly or indirectly. Indirect form of begging in motorsport refers to insistence on part of a driver to give him (1) a better car and or (2) a better strategy in comparison to his teammate. That’s more so when that particular driver happens to have his teammate as his closest rival. That’s what Fernando Alonso has been doing at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. He said, he came to McLaren - leaving Renault in the most undignified manner possible - to “face new challenges”. In my viewpoint, there are two things that probably made him leave Renault and join McLaren. Point number one, a better retainer by McLaren. Point number two, Alonso dreads the prospect of facing a teammate who is quicker than he is. Had he remained at Renault, he would have had to face just that, courtesy, Heikki Kovalainen. The second point is more important in the context of our discussion.
Nobody will expect a rookie to be a better driver overall than a World Champion. In the same way, Alonso least expected Lewis Hamilton to come closer to matching him let alone run rings round. Unfortunately for Alonso, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t just another rookie. I don’t need to tell you how he has proved to be better than Alonso in most aspects throughout this season and how he is now the Championship leader as a result.
When Alonso found Hamilton to be quicker and more consistent than what he is, he should have realized that it was up to him to improve his performance on track to beat Lewis. He should have swallowed the hard fact that he, whatever the record books say, is not in the same league of his teammate. Instead of that, he started harping about everything else that wouldn’t make him go faster. His attacks on McLaren about Hamilton being favoured over him (due to the fact, Alonso says, that Hamilton is an Englishman), indirectly wanting to win the title off the track thro’ politics (he wanted Hamilton to be punished over his driving in the Japanese GP), telling the world that McLaren will tamper with his car to give Hamilton an advantage (in his press conference in the Chinese GP) and not the least of all, threatening his team boss Ron Dennis over the spying scandal (he demanded that he be given the No.1 status lest, he threatened that he would be giving evidences related to the scandal to the FIA)!
Going into the last Grand Prix of this season, Alonso trails Hamilton by four points. Alonso winning the race and Hamilton finishing 5th will clinch the title for the Spaniard. I do not know if it will happen or not. But, if it does happen, it will leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
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