shonguiz

Of course no.

450SEL6.9

The speech bubble says something like, "Sorry, guys (meaning Fisi and Heikki on the left-hand side). We have no time to work on your cars. We stopped to work to prepare for 2008."

Piquet Jnr. is intriguing for me, maybe the most intriguing story if it's a one-team race next year. No doubt he'd want to take on Alonso, but I don't think that will be received well in this particular team. Many F1 purists insist that rookies have to pay their dues and should not show the "balls" to defy a two-time WDC teammate who the team desperately wanted back. In retrospect, if you ignore the lies and deceptions, no one really disputes Mclaren would still have the WDC for 2007 had it given No. 1 status to a bushy eyebrow Spaniard. No one in their right mind would think Alonso, who has beaten both Kimi and Schumi is relatively equal cars, would lose 17 points in China and Brazil.

I think Piquet definitely has speed and is probably more technical than his daddy, but I don't think he will be beating Alonso. I reckon it's better for Jr.'s own development to learn from a WDC and noted car developer in your first year, instead of going all out to beat him at risk of offending your team.

bmer

Double world champion Fernando Alonso has said his grandmother had put pressure on him to leave the McLaren team for Renault.

"The person who was most concerned was my grandmother, who told me to get out of there, from McLaren," he told Cadena Ser radio late Monday. "We opted for Renault because it is the most optimistic choice for 2008 and with possibilities to do good things."

But he said the French team have a lot to do next season.

"This year they (Renault) were far off and they will have to make a great leap, but anything is possible."

Alonso announced his return to Renault on December 10th, ending speculation over his driving plans for the 2008 season.

He won his two titles in 2005 and 2006 with the French team before moving to McLaren with whom he finished third in this year's title race behind Kimi Raikkonen and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.


Alonso ended his contract early with McLaren after a turbulent time with a spying scandal and a fractious relationship with Hamilton and team boss Ron Dennis.

But he told Cadena Ser he had no concerns over the same type of tensions with new team-mate Nelson Piquet at Renault.

"In the end, it all depends on me and it doesn't matter whether my team-mate is more or less famous than me. I have confidence in Renault, in (team boss) Flavio (Briatore) and I know that he will manage the team well."


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