Emmcee 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2013 Just came across this, what you think? Does this mean he would have been signed instead of Vettel? http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/469309/Alonso_turned_down_Red_Bull_offer_for_2008_after_McLaren_fiasco/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ikyrotz 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2013 Just came across this, what you think? Does this mean he would have been signed instead of Vettel? http://www.gptoday.c...McLaren_fiasco/ Isn't that old news? I'm pretty sure I read about that already a long time ago. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jem of the Shire 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2013 RBR didn't sign Vettel in 2008, so if Alonso had moved to RBR I imagine they would've ditched DC. But would they have signed Vettel when already having a strong Webber-Alonso driver pairing? I dont think they would. Anyway it's easy to look back in hindsight and think 'what if' but to be honest I expect every team in the pitlane (bar Ferrari) was trying to sign Alonso for 2008, and in 2007 RBR was not an attractive proposition Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Massa 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2013 He also turned down Toyota. To think, he could have ended up in one of those empty crates Stefan Grand Prix sent to Bahrain! I think a lot of people saw Red Bull as hard to trust. Yes, they were signing the right people, but it was hard to know if they would be committed to F1. The track record with young drivers, for example, was one of losing interest very quickly. Would it be that way for Red Bull? In hindsight, obviously not, but could we have known that then? They were building a good team, but I don't think it was irrational to think that it would be for the short-term, that they were going to spend everything now and then disappear when some "objective" was complete. They cut all funding to U.S. drivers as soon as Speed got into F1; "mission accomplished," they said. Would they have done that in F1? They had pulled out of IRL as soon as they had entered it, and were performing miserably in NASCAR despite a massive budget. Would that start to become the new focus? So, while it may have been easy to say, "hey, they have Newey, ride it out" in 2007, I also think it would have been pretty easy to say, "this isn't going to last. They'll move out quickly." I really don't think that would have been misguided thought in light of the facts then. Plus, and this is not a knock on Alonso, Red Bull's driver program was pretty expansive back then. After the mismanagement of he and Hamilton has teammates in 2007, do you really want to risk joining Red Bull, only for one of the dozen drivers they were backing in various junior formulae to come in and cause that all over again? I don't know if Alonso considered that, of course, or any of this, but I wouldn't have blamed him if he realized he wouldn't be the long-term driver for them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KoolMonkey 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2013 I wonder how this all goes down at the brass at Ferrari. Alonso despite sometimes claiming his undying love and respect for the Scuderia, keeps undoing that by talking about moving to other teams, even in the past tense. Alonso has a history of not being loyal to anyone. And I'm sure Ferrari know this, otherwise they wouldn't have it out there that they have a contract with Alonso and expect him to honour it. It makes his choice to go back to Renault after McLaren even more stupid if you ask me. He look so out of it and lacking in motivation during those years, and it seemed clear he was counting down the clock having already signed with Ferrari. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Emmcee 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2013 I wonder how this all goes down at the brass at Ferrari. Alonso despite sometimes claiming his undying love and respect for the Scuderia, keeps undoing that by talking about moving to other teams, even in the past tense. Alonso has a history of not being loyal to anyone. And I'm sure Ferrari know this, otherwise they wouldn't have it out there that they have a contract with Alonso and expect him to honour it. It makes his choice to go back to Renault after McLaren even more stupid if you ask me. He look so out of it and lacking in motivation during those years, and it seemed clear he was counting down the clock having already signed with Ferrari. He didnt lack motivation, the car was just crap and he put in some brilliant performances in 08/09 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KoolMonkey 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2013 He sure did. I imagine Singapore 2008 took quite alot of him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
