Tough luck!

Justin:

Teammate battles are becoming very intriguing this year, more so than any season that I can recall in recent times. Three battles in particular are proving the most interesting to me thus far...

Mercedes
Hamilton is seemingly burying Rosberg at the moment, with three wins on the spin. Bahrain was amazing in terms of these two dueling for the lead for the entire race. In China Hamilton was utterly dominant where Rosberg never really got going. Nico had all sorts of technical problems on the grid and it was a great recovery drive to limit the points loss damage to Lewis. Three poles so far for Lewis, three wins from four. It will be interesting to see how Rosberg does in Spain and whether he can cease the runaway express that is an on-song Hamilton.

Ferrari
The one driver lineup that everyone thought was going to explode first hasn't, and doesnt really show any signs of doing so. Kimi is uncomfortable with the car and is generally struggling at the moment. Alonso drove the car off it's wheels in China to a great third place. The true all time greats find ways of adapting their driving to get the best out of a not so great car or a car that is not to their liking. Alonso does this - see 2012 as just one example. Drivers such as Kimi and JB are awesome on their day when the car is just right. If it's slightly off, then usually so are they. We'll see what happens when Kimi comes back.

Red Bull
That's twice in four races now that Red Bull have asked Vettel to move aside for Ricciardo. Oh dear. Ricciardo is blowing Vettel away a bit at the moment. He is getting on better with car whilst Vettel struggles to adapt to the new regulations. Vettel has gone on record as saying that yep, Daniel is doing a better job, plain and simple. How does that really sit with a four time world champion? Not well I'd expect. We've already had a flash of that Vettel petulance on the radio...."Daniel is behind you, he stopped later.."......"Tough luck!". A flash of that thinking that says he is bigger than the team once again.

I think this situation will explode soon if Vettel doesnt start putting the new guy firmly in his place.

Alonso made a remark at the end of last year that if when Vettel has an average car, same as the rest, or a car he doesnt get on with very well....if he comes 5th, 7th, 8th, then these four world titles are even worse news for Vettel and how people view him.

He was king of the exhaust-blown era, but that is all gone now. Can he adapt? Is he a true all-time great?


It's not just these three....Williams....Massa Vs Bottas.....Force India...Hulk vs Perez....it's kicking off all over the grid this year and I love it!!

Toxic Teammates

Justin:

Best friends, work colleagues etc etc, fall out. Some friendships recover, get over blips, some aren't meant to or simply don't. For one reason or another, lack of effort or caring, some friendships fade.

Add to all this the intense sporting environment of F1 and you would have to say true friendships are hard to find. That's not to say they do not exist, just rarely between two drivers on the same team.


I've picked three examples of when "teammates" were nothing of the sort, where the relationship soured and people fought the enemies within, but each example has some striking similarities with the next. Indeed, Piquet Vs Mansell at Williams in 1986 is similar in nature to that of Alonso Vs Hamilton at Mclaren in 2007. That of established double world champion coming in to a British team either expecting to be number 1, or promised they would be number 1. In the case of Williams fate intervened and in the case of Mclaren Ron Dennis sold Alonso a dream that didn't exist (read, there seemed to have been an almighty misunderstanding and general fuckup at the contract signing!).

The first example, Prost Vs Senna...what hasn't been said about it? This was simply the case of Senna thinking "who is the best driver?" and then setting out to move to the best team, alongside the best driver, to destroy him.

Prost Vs Senna

Prost himself remarked once that Senna wanted to not beat him, but humiliate him. That was Monaco in 1988 when Senna was told to slow down whilst 55 seconds in the lead ahead of Prost. He kept pushing and pushing, then crashed out. No doubt Prost saw Senna wanting to humiliate him as a weakness. Despite the odd barbed remark, things remained cordial enough for 88, with Senna taking the title in Japan.

1989 was the beginning of the end...the end of 89 was the end of the end.

Senna had begun moulding the team around him and even though Prost won the title, Senna had effectively driven Prost out of his home simply because he refused to work with someone like Senna ever again.

They crashed into each other in the 1989 finale in Japan, one blaming the other. Senna got his car moving again, via a steward bump start. Prost went immediately to the FIA office to lodge a formal complaint about Senna. Senna was DQ'd, for re-entering the track a few metres from where he left it.

Prost took the title whilst Dennis protested on Senna's behalf. Theres favouritism if ever you saw it. Dennis always claims to give equal treatment to drivers. OK, Prost was taking the number 1 to Ferrari for 1990, but still, Mclaren won the drivers and constructors titles and here he was defending Senna at the expense of Prost.

Senna's passion and intense drive came from his need to be the best, to prove himself against the best. To destroy the best.

For 1990 they weren't teammates, but they weren't friends at all. The rivalry carried on.

Another example of Prost's alienation from Dennis was Prost throwing his winning trophy at Monza in 89, when he'd just announced his move to Ferrari, to the Ferrari fans. Whoops! Again, Dennis helped aid the disintegration of relations no end.

All the way to another coming together in Japan for the title showdown. Senna later admitted to deliberately getting his own back for what happened in 1989. Senna was very passionate, driven by a sense of injustice, the system being against him. Prost was cool, calm and calculating.

They reconciled when Senna won his last race in Australia 1993 and Prost joined him in the podium. They were no longer rivals as Prost was retiring.

All I remember of their years at Mclaren was a completely poisonous relationship.

Opposites do not attract.

 

Mansell Vs Piquet

Piquet arrived at Williams in 1986 as a double world champion. Mansell was the guy who wasnt supposed to be fast, to be easily put in his place by Piquet. 

Piquet has stated previously that when he signed it was on the understanding he would be number 1. A month or so later the team was in a state of disarray after Frank Williams' accident.

With equal equipment and no team orders Mansell was inspired whilst Piquet was clearly rattled.

Through 1986 and 1987 the two had some titanic clashes on and off the track. Piquet always felt like the fighting outsider whilst Mansell was the fighting Brit, just fighting for everything.

Honda paid Piquet's salary and were non too impressed that through 1986 Williams never ordered Mansell to pull aside and let Piquet through. Piquet stated that had he been backed he would have won the title, rather than allowing in-team fighting. This is similar to Alonso and Hamilton.

The low point of this toxic teammate lineup included some rather nasty remarks from Piquet about Mansell's wife.

Alonso Vs Hamilton

Possibly the most toxic of the lot as everything went to pot within half a year of Alonso and Hamilton first teaming up at Mclaren.

Looking back now, it's easy to see that perhaps the issue wasn't between the drivers themselves, but more Alonso and Ron Dennis...therefore, Alonso Vs everyone at Mclaren. However, both drivers had plenty of anger towards each other at the time.

This year in F1 history was also set against the backdrop of "spygate", where some Mclaren team-members were found to have gotten their hands on Ferrari car data.

Has to be said, Alonso the antagonistic politics player came to the fore in 2007.

First signs of real trouble brewed in Monaco when Hamilton was annoyed about being told to hold station behind Alonso after the final pitstops. 

Unbeknown to Ron Dennis, Alonso had seen some of the Ferrari data, but would later refuse to take part in the spygate trial.

As the season progressed, relations between all parties soured as we all realised there had clearly been some huge misunderstanding between Alonso and Dennis when they signed contracts. Alonso believed he was to be given number one status to lead Mclaren's charge to his third world title. Nobody was really prepared for how quick Hamilton was to be, apart from maybe hamilton himself.

This was an epic clash of ego's. The proud, double world champion who would not regard Hamilton as anything other than a young, brash upstart who he'd firmly put in his place. As the year progressed Hamilton's ego came to the fore and he almost kind of forgot his place in the standings of F1 driver greats. It was a great rookie season for sure, but he was not standing shoulder to shoulder through history with the very best just yet - his strut and actions suggested he thought otherwise.

By Hungary came around things were strained. Hamilton ignored a team order to let Alonso past him in qualifying for a clear run. This had been agreed before the race. Yes, we don't usually hear this bit, the bit where Hamilton started off a chain of events, not Alonso.

As revenge, Alonso came into refuel in the final moments of qualy, was cleared to go, and just waited patiently in his pitbox. Hamilton was queuing behind and as a result of Alonso delaying him, he missed a final run. 

Dennis hauled Alonso's trainer off into the garage for a few harsh words.

Essentially, Mclaren was now tearing itself apart at the seams. For a man who always claims to be able to manage driver lineups and who is a huge control freak, Ron Dennis was getting a lot of things wrong as his house became a rampant mine of utter chaos.

Alonso got penalised for his actions and started with a grid penalty - not good for the team.

Allegedly Alonso also approached Dennis with regard to his knowledge of the Ferrari data. Alonso is then alleged to have told Dennis "give me number one status or I go to the FIA with this data". Dennis told him to go to the FIA as he hadnt  a clue such data existed.

Things continued to sour between all three, with both drivers antagonising on and off the track.

As DC put it a while ago, Alonso had been sold a dream by Dennis...what it was, what it was supposed to be, they cannot agree on.

Dennis also claims not to favour drivers.....lets ask Mika and DC shall we?! Alonso took it as they arent backing him so they must be backing Hamilton then.

Alonso drove bloody well given all the chaos around him, the team being against him etc etc.

In the end, the chaos at Mclaren gifted the title to Kimi as the two Mclaren guys paid too much attention to each other.

Alonso was right about one thing - if Mclaren would have backed him, he'd have won the title.

Alonso and Vettel at RB will never happen...too toxic a mix. I dont think Kimi being at RB will be any less toxic either frankly. Vettel will spit his dummy when he loses.

A link to a video of before it all went wrong - funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKU90BSHqHk