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Ron Dennis can't confirm Alonso will be driving next year


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#1 jimjimjeroo

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 12:56

Before this gets lost in the McLaren thread,

 

On BBC Ron Dennis can't confirm Alonso will be driving next year...  basically he wants to see that the 2016 car is a significant step forward...

 

Who would step in? and would a "sabbatical" lead to retirement? 

 

http://www.motorspor...16-says-dennis/


Edited by jimjimjeroo, 28 November 2015 - 13:06.


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#2 Wheels23

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 12:59

Stoffel? But I doubt that Nando won't not drive. 



#3 jimjimjeroo

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:01

total brain fart, couldnt remember the McLaren reserves name!



#4 Risil

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:08

In other words, Alonso's contract with McLaren had performance clauses and McLaren-Honda failed to meet them?



#5 kosmos

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:28

Fernando said just now on the Spanish TV, is not true and he has no clue what Ron said.


Edited by kosmos, 28 November 2015 - 13:32.


#6 Knowlesy

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:36

Tbf I don't think you can pin Ferrari and this second McLaren debacle on Alonso.

I would be surprised if he wasn't competing next year. Otherwise what was the point of this year?

#7 Lemans

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:47

Alonso was just asked on SKY about taking the year off. He said 'No'.



#8 LeClerc

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:57

Alonso was just asked on SKY about taking the year off. He said 'No'.

 

Alonso is not exactly know for being frank with the press.



#9 Lemans

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:58

Alonso is not exactly know for being frank with the press.

 

Nobody is. It's F1.



#10 kosmos

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 13:59

Andrew Benson Verified account @andrewbensonf1 9m9 minutes ago

Webber on Alonso: “He is a ticking bomb. Give him two or three days in testing & if the car is uncompetitive I think he’ll have a year off"



#11 Dalton007

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:08

Definitely tensions between Ron and Fernando. They should be quiet and get on with the job.



#12 Gorma

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:12

Alonso was just asked on SKY about taking the year off. He said 'No'.

He said "No, not really" which clearly implies he's thought of it.



#13 BillBald

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:15

Sounds like Ron might have gone public with some private discussions.



#14 chunder27

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:19

I have no issue with this in Nando's case.

 

He is utterly wasting what most acknowledge to be the best talent in F1 driving that bucket

 

Jenson is doing more with it, but Alonso spent his last year at Ferrari doing the same.

 

It is partly his fault he is in this situaiton, but I do feel a little for him.

 

Let's hope he walks away in some ways, goes and drives an Audi or Toyota in WEC, ramps up the pressure on Bernie a little more.



#15 Cirio

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:20

If McLaren think the car will be so bad it's not going to be competitive then it would make sense to save the money.



#16 tkulla

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:20

Sounds like Ron might have gone public with some private discussions.

 

 

Bear with me here, but it could be that Ron doesn't want Alonso to race next year. If you chooses to take a sabbatical then I'm assuming he won't be paid the $40 million or so that he would be due. Since the team isn't in the best financial position right now they might actually prefer to have the money. They might be thinking that Button is close enough to Alonso in performance that they'd have a good benchmark to judge their progress, and Vandoorne looks like the real deal and doesn't cost anything.



#17 Marklar

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:35

Fernando said just now on the Spanish TV, is not true and he has no clue what Ron said.

O can already feel the tensions....

#18 Seanspeed

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:38

Fernando said just now on the Spanish TV, is not true and he has no clue what Ron said.

Dont believe him for a second, sorry.

Last year, Alonso also said he'd be driving for Ferrari this season.

#19 DutchQuicksilver

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:45

Deja vu from last year? And the year before that? Alonso must have had three sabbaticals by now....



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#20 Outsider

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 14:55

meanwhile Alonso post this on twitter 

Fernando Alonso ‏@alo_oficial  1h

Puncture at the wrong time ...! Very pleased with the progress of the car this weekend !! The direction is correct..1f44c.png1f3fb.png1f44c.png1f3fb.png

 



#21 Rhardrks

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:04

Bear with me here, but it could be that Ron doesn't want Alonso to race next year. If you chooses to take a sabbatical then I'm assuming he won't be paid the $40 million or so that he would be due. Since the team isn't in the best financial position right now they might actually prefer to have the money. They might be thinking that Button is close enough to Alonso in performance that they'd have a good benchmark to judge their progress, and Vandoorne looks like the real deal and doesn't cost anything.

 

Honda is paying Alonso's wages so McLaren finances are safe. If the car is the same next year and Alonso walks away what McLaren will lose is their prestige/reputation,  they will not be viewed as a top team and potentially sponsors/partners walking away and new sponsors not touching them with a barge pole.



#22 four1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:04

Wait a minute.

What happened to "next year we'll be fighting for wins"? Or how about, "whether you finish second or last it makes no difference and I was tired of finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th"?

 

I suggest that FA goes and takes another photo with Flavio and a pack of Marlboros and see if he can reverse the bad karma.



#23 AustinF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:20

He said "No, not really" which clearly implies he's thought of it.

Which, after the year McLaren has had, would only mean he's human.



#24 Marklar

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:21

Wait a minute.

What happened to "next year we'll be fighting for wins"? Or how about, "whether you finish second or last it makes no difference and I was tired of finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th"?

 

I suggest that FA goes and takes another photo with Flavio and a pack of Marlboros and see if he can reverse the bad karma.

Who says that everything is true what is now speculated?



#25 AustinF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:22

Honda is paying Alonso's wages so McLaren finances are safe. If the car is the same next year and Alonso walks away what McLaren will lose is their prestige/reputation,  they will not be viewed as a top team and potentially sponsors/partners walking away and new sponsors not touching them with a barge pole.

I don't think that's actually known.


Edited by AustinF1, 28 November 2015 - 15:23.


#26 MustangSally

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:25

Andrew Benson Verified account ‏@andrewbensonf1 9m9 minutes ago

Webber on Alonso: “He is a ticking bomb. Give him two or three days in testing & if the car is uncompetitive I think he’ll have a year off"

 

Mark was very animated on BBC. Along the lines of:

 

'Coo blimey mate, bloody cryin' shame . . . for Fernando and Jenson. He's got lots of zeros in the bank, doesn't need this etc.' 

 

He also happened to mention on worldwide TV that McLaren were losing technical and commercial partners.

 

Don't they have media training in Australia?  :drunk:



#27 AustinF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:25

Who says that everything is true what is now speculated?

Alonso's detractors will always jump on anything like this and declare their interpretation of it as absolute truth... doing anything they can do to discredit him in any way. That's why this thread hasn't long to live, imho.


Edited by AustinF1, 29 November 2015 - 02:48.


#28 YoungGun

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:33

Alonso's detractors will always jump on anything like this and declare it as absolute truth. Anything they can do to discredit him in any way. Because of that, his thread hasn't long to live, imho.

 

Alonso has an uncanny way of being involved in more than what his paid for, which is driving. In retrospect Honda had been down this road before having a WDC drive for them and it all ended badly. Seems history maybe repeating itself.



#29 FredF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:41

Well, technically Ron is right. I mean Alonso may not drive for McLaren next year if the earth is struck by an asteroid sometime next January. Mind you it still won't be as big a disaster as the McLaren/Honda partnership. :p



#30 LuckyStrike1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:45

Mark was very animated on BBC. Along the lines of:

 

'Coo blimey mate, bloody cryin' shame . . . for Fernando and Jenson. He's got lots of zeros in the bank, doesn't need this etc.' 

 

He also happened to mention on worldwide TV that McLaren were losing technical and commercial partners.

 

Don't they have media training in Australia?  :drunk:

 

 

Yes, but Webber doesn't work for Alonso or McLaren. 



#31 wj_gibson

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:49

What's all that about, then?

 

It's clearly to create an expectation that Alonso might not be around next year.

 

Maybe Alonso has intimated as much to Dennis as some form of ultimatum and this is Dennis's way of daring him go ahead.



#32 chhatra

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:56

I don't think he will, but should the worst happen and he goes, McLaren have an exceptional talent (and significantly cheaper) in Vandoorne waiting in the wings.

#33 Junky

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 15:59

What is Ron's objective with these statement? If it's true that Honda pays Alonso's wages, it even becomes more strange.

It seems that those two just can't work together.

#34 muramasa

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:20

mentioning sabaticcal is bit puzzling for sure, so is "our drivers for next year are JB and FA at this moment of time" because it's conditional, meanwhile "he will end his career at mclaren" is quite a statement too if he really said that.

 

Seems context is missing.  What was the context and question? Anyone asked about sabattical specifically perhaps for example. and couldve been just about recollection of what he/they went through this season.



#35 SenorSjon

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:22

Andrew Benson Verified account ‏@andrewbensonf1 9m9 minutes ago
Webber on Alonso: “He is a ticking bomb. Give him two or three days in testing & if the car is uncompetitive I think he’ll have a year off"

With current regs, you have no more testing than that...

#36 AustinF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:25

mentioning sabaticcal is bit puzzling for sure, so is "our drivers for next year are JB and FA at this moment of time" because it's conditional, meanwhile "he will end his career at mclaren" is quite a statement too if he really said that.

 

Seems context is missing.  What was the context and question? Anyone asked about sabattical specifically perhaps for example. and couldve been just about recollection of what he/they went through this season.

Yep, it seemed to me like a lot of what Ron said there referred back to the week before the race n Japan, which at the time seemed crucial to helping ease the 2016 performance fears of the drivers. But without context, we can't be certain.  Context, as usual, is everything.


Edited by AustinF1, 28 November 2015 - 16:33.


#37 AustinF1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:26

What is Ron's objective with these statement? If it's true that Honda pays Alonso's wages, it even becomes more strange.

It seems that those two just can't work together.

Sigh. You get that from the Dennis comments and Alonso saying nothing? Seems like some people, as usual, want to manufacture as much as they can from anything Dennis or Alonso say (or don't say).



#38 CPR

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:27

Autosport seem only one to have actually published actual quotes:

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/122032

 

Since there's not many exciting stories around I guess the press are going overboard trying to whip it up into a huge story.



#39 kamikaze1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 16:55

I think people are reading into it too much, and looking for conspiracy theories, and reasons to pounce on either RD or FA and create disharmony.  Trolls feeding off of scraps.

 

*Look,  Ron Dennis has known his fair share of multiple word champions, and knows that even one year in an uncompetitive car (93.. Senna amongst many) is too much for them.*  He has 2 wdc winners in a team with this Honda 50 engine.  He knows how they are thinking from his past experiences.  Stop trying to cause rifts, rumours, and bs.  It's pretty pedantic and pathetic looking for angles. It's like stuff one would read on the old planet-f1 website and forum.   Apologies for the rant, but has F1 fanboyism really become this speculative? 

 

Stick with your goddamn Eastenders, Corrie, Home & Away, Kardashians, or whatever your poison for the drama junkies in ye. 

 

People don't seem to realise, lesser known journalists read stuff on these forums, and then report on it as if it was fact, which then becomes mainstream and picked up by other news sources, which then gets to the drivers and team bosses etc.   Causing more and more goddamn drama. When all it was, was some goddamn fanboy trying to dismantle a reputation of a driver/team boss/ team, to satisfy his own narcissistic tendencies that his team/driver of choice is better.   


Edited by kamikaze1, 28 November 2015 - 17:02.


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#40 SophieB

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:00

It was reasonable to start a thread to discuss Ron's remarks. However, as ever, it cannot be a foot in the door to air your general thoughts on Alonso as a person or indeed your grievances*. Please keep on topic.

Edit: or about Ron, for that matter.

#41 jjcale

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:01

1 down 1 to go .... and then I can get my Macca back from all these driver fans who actually hate Ron and the team.



#42 anyeis

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:02


"I discussed many ideas but not at this part of the year," Alonso said. "We feel so much more positive than before with the recent pace of the car. It is something we didn't discuss for four or five months already."My intention is to race and I think I will race."

http://www.bbc.com/s...rmula1/34953829

Edited by anyeis, 28 November 2015 - 17:03.


#43 cas422

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:18

Formula One drivers don't take sabbaticals at 34 - 35 years of age unless they have no choice.



#44 Petroltorque

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:21

Benson attempting to generate some more hits to his website? No one can predict the future.

#45 Arska

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:37

I'd guess Alonso hasn't confirmed his 2016 participation with a signature, and good ol' Ron is taking this approach to try to make it happen.



#46 Volcano70

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:39

Hakkinen's sabbatical led to his retirement of F1.

 

Alonso-Super Formula?



#47 CPR

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:48

More comments from Fernando here:
http://en.f1i.com/ne...lan-alonso.html
 

Alonso says it is not his intention to take a year off, suggesting the first test would be too early to judge how competitive the car will be. Asked if he could absolutely rule out taking a sabbatical, Alonso replied: "I think you can never say 100% anything.

"I cannot say that tomorrow I will not have dinner, because I don’t know if I will be hungry or not. My intention is to race and I think I will race. We will see how it goes next year and it is not in my plans not to race. As I said in the TV compound, I was the first to be surprised about Ron’s comments and I know that it’s up to me now to answer and interpret and get what he meant with those comments, but I think it is much better to ask him tomorrow when he is here, because I am the first to be surprised.

"Just to add to how strange the comment is, if I were to take a sabbatical I would have taken this year! I kept racing, kept fighting and kept pushing the car uphill to go to the pit lane, so that’s how it was."



#48 Beta2

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:50

Hakkinen's sabbatical led to his retirement of F1.
 ?


And prosts led to a world championship.

#49 pRy

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 17:57

More comments from Fernando here:

 

Sounds to me like Fernando is surprised not at the nature of the comments but by the fact they've been made public by Ron.

 

He can't confirm he is racing next year. If there was no substance to the suggestion or if he had changed his mind since they discussed it.. he would just say "I will be racing next year, no question. I was worried but things are much better now". He can't do that. So clearly at some point this year.. perhaps as recently as Suzuka.. he's told the team he won't be racing next year if the car is as bad as it has been this year.

 

Now that may just have been a tactic he deployed to force Honda and the team to sit up and get their house in order. Who knows. We'll see. I don't blame him really.. both drivers have clearly been fed up this season. But we know how Ron is. This may still end in tears.


Edited by pRy, 28 November 2015 - 17:59.


#50 Beta2

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 18:19

 
He can't confirm he is racing next year. If there was no substance to the suggestion or if he had changed his mind since they discussed it.. he would just say "I will be racing next year, no question.
 .

But Alonso denied those claims, and when asked after qualifying if he could spend 2016 on the sidelines he said: "No.

"I will be on the grid"

He did.