Nigel Roebuck ויריבות בין נהגים בתוך אותה הקבוצה.

נהג פורמולה-1 גדול באמת, מבחינתי לפחות, הוא זה שנאלץ להתמודד עם בן-קבוצה שנוהג לפחות ברמה שלו.

איירטון סנה הגיע לפורמולה-1 בשנת 1984 והתחיל להבריק במדי קבוצת טולמאן-הארט, משם עבר ללוטוס ותמיד ראה לפניו את צמד המקלארן-מלבורו וביחוד את זו של פרוסט וכבר אז סימן אותה כמטרה , זה הכסא שהוא רוצה לשבת בו ולהתמודד מול אלאן פרוסט כשווה וראוי.

סנה עבר למקלארן והוכיח למה הוא ראוי לתואר הנהג הטוב בעולם, מיכאל שומאכר לעומתו תמיד דאג שלא יהיה ךו בן-זוג שיאיים על ההגמוניה שלו ולכן, מבחינתי לפחות יש לו כוכבית .

כעת אנחנו עומדים מול סיטואציה חדשה ושוב במקלארן. אלונסו כאלוף עולם הגיע לקבוצה ולצידו יושב אחד שהוכיח כבר בשלושת המרוצים הפותחים של השנה כי הוא מסוגל לאיים על הנהג הספרדי.

תקראו מה ל-Nigel Roebuck יש להגיד על זה .

דובי

"....Lauda was unnerved by Prost's speed in 1984 - in particular, by the risks Alain took going through gaps, and so on, which Niki was no longer prepared to do. Go back even further, to 1960-61, and Stirling Moss, no less, was saying the same things about John Surtees. It's a fact that rookies have always been more prepared to take risks than more experienced drivers.

Lauda himself was something of a wild man in his early days, but by the time he was in a team with Prost, he had won a couple of World Championships - and had also been through his terrible accident at the Nurburgring. When Senna joined Prost at McLaren, Alain, too, had won the title twice, and Ayrton was the one with everything to prove. This syndrome is as old as the hills.

The feud which developed between Senna and Prost was the most bitter, the most intense, I have ever seen in motor racing, and during their two seasons as McLaren 'team mates', the situation was extremely difficult for Ron Dennis and his people to manage - McLaren became effectively two teams which happened to operate out of the same pits.

Running two superstars in one team is never going to be easy, for racing drivers have famously muscular egos, and by definition your team mate, in one respect, is always going to be your major rival: he, after all, is the only other driver who has exactly the same equipment, and so comparisons are glaring.

All that said, the only parallel I can see between Senna/Prost and Alonso/Hamilton is that both are phenomenally strong driver pairings. There wasn't a lot Ayrton wouldn't do to win a race, to get the upper hand, and in that respect the ultra-ethical Alain was always at a disadvantage to him. McLaren was 'Prost's team' when Senna arrived, and Ayrton set his sights squarely on Alain: he was the king of the hill, the one who had to be deposed.

The situation now is a little different, in the sense that both Alonso and Hamilton are new to the McLaren team - indeed, although Lewis is an F1 rookie, he is inevitably far more deeply entrenched in the McLaren 'family', because the company for years paid for his racing in other categories, grooming him for the day he was ready to start F1.

Although twice World Champion, Alonso, by contrast, is completely new to McLaren. As Jackie Stewart pointed out, before the first race in Melbourne: "Alonso hasn't been that much faster than Hamilton in testing, but we know what a remarkably complete driver he is. He's with a new team, and he's got to prove something - he's got to make his mark in the team, because he knows that the McLaren romance with Hamilton is a very big one."

I don't doubt that Hamilton's incredible performances in Melbourne, Sepang and Bahrain have shaken Alonso at least as much as anyone else - not even Ron can have expected Lewis to begin quite so stunningly. When you're rightly regarded as the best driver in the world, it must be difficult indeed to come to terms with a team mate - a rookie, for God's Sake - who pushes you from day one, and I'm sure that Fernando's confidence must have taken a bit of a knock.

That said, he is fortunate to be driving for McLaren, in the sense that Ron Dennis is well aware of drivers' sensitivities and egos and foibles, and there are signs that already he is seeking to maintain equilibrium in the team, to prevent Alonso from feeling he is the 'other driver'. Fernando is a nice guy, but he must by now be getting bored with facing constant questions about his youthful team mate.

Fundamentally, though, he and Lewis get along well, and appear genuinely to like each other, which is very different from the Senna/Prost situation. Undoubtedly there will be tricky moments for Ron and others in the team this season, but I'd be surprised if a major problem arose, I must say. Time will tell...."

That said, he is fortunate to be driving for McLaren, in the sense that Ron Dennis is well aware of drivers' sensitivities and egos and foibles, and there are signs that already he is seeking to maintain equilibrium in the team, to prevent Alonso from feeling he is the 'other driver'. Fernando is a nice guy, but he must by now be getting bored with facing constant questions about his youthful team mate.

אם הוא צודק , אני מניח שאם אלונסו ישמור על קור רוח ועל אמונה בעצמו , מאוד יתכן ואם זה יגיע לכך, הקבוצה תבקש מהמילטון , לתת לאלונסו להיות במקום הבכיר .

Fundamentally, though, he and Lewis get along well, and appear genuinely to like each other, which is very different from the Senna/Prost situation. Undoubtedly there will be tricky moments for Ron and others in the team this season, but I'd be surprised if a major problem arose, I must say. Time will tell...."

 

ואכן כמו שהו סיים (כשאין מה לומר ) הזמן יגיד

ועוד משהו לכבוד חג שבועות מפי N.R -

." Not easy for him, either, is the situation he finds himself in with his team-mate. In the past, they have not troubled him too much: occasionally, in the Renault days, Trulli or Fisichella would outqualify him, but in the course of four seasons Fernando puts 15 wins on the board, Jarno and Giancarlo three between them.

No worries there, then, but Renault personnel noted that when, for whatever reason, Alonso was slightly outpaced by a team-mate, he didn't respond particularly well, perhaps letting it get to him more than he should.

There is nothing unusual about this: Rubens Barrichello once told me he was amazed how upset Michael Schumacher would get if shaded by his team-mate. "With all that Michael's won and the ability he has," said Rubens, "you'd think he'd be absolutely secure..."

So you would, but maybe it's the really great ones who suffer most in this respect. If you are perceived to be the best, after all, and someone in an identical car presumes to challenge you seriously - let alone beat you - sooner or later that perception will start to fade.

Once in a while even Schumacher was outpaced by a team-mate, but throughout his career Michael took great care to make sure he wasn't partnered by an established superstar, and Bernie Ecclestone, for one, always regretted that. "I thought that was oddly insecure of Michael. I'd say to him, 'Look, it wouldn't matter who was in the other car - you'd beat him', but...

"For years the cars were so good that the only person who might beat him was someone else in a Ferrari, and when that person wasn't allowed to beat him - and, worse than that, was riding shotgun for him - people didn't have the respect for Michael that perhaps they should have done. I doubt that anyone would have beaten him, in equal cars, but we'll never know, will we?"

When it came to his racing career, Schumacher was a master at eliminating 'things that could go wrong', and one of those, potentially, was an ultra-quick team-mate. Perhaps he had noted what happened at McLaren when Alain Prost, around whom the team had for long revolved, was joined by Ayrton Senna. In this situation, unless you're fortunate - as were Lotus, when Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were there - egos can get very fragile very quickly, and over time the relationship between Prost and Senna degenerated into civil war.

One thing, though, to have your status threatened by another star, quite another by a rookie. Since the retirement of Schumacher, few would question Alonso's standing as the best driver in F1, and, proud man that he is, it must be difficult to come to terms with the almighty pace shown thus far by Lewis Hamilton.

In Melbourne Fernando just got the better of him, and at Sepang turned in the kind of muscular victory we saw so often in the two seasons past. But in Bahrain Hamilton had discernibly the upper hand, particularly on race day, and that has to have had an effect.

"I relish the problem of having to separate two competitive drivers who are pushing each other," said Dennis, when Juan Montoya joined Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren. "That's a great problem to have!"

I'm sure Ron feels the same now about Alonso and Hamilton, and quite right too. Not for a second do I anticipate a potential Senna-Prost situation, or anything approaching it, but still it is one which will need careful handling, as Ron knows better than anyone: since Bahrain, a lot of McLaren press material has been glowing in its praise of its double world champion. This weekend, before his own people, Alonso will be very keen to reassert himself.

חג שמח

דובי