I don't think Hughes rubbishes Alonso, throughout that piece he's praising him as a top drivers. He says he's not been clever on how he tries to play people. Well we've all seen that. He did it to Ron and many a time he's rubbished the Ferari, that's not clever behaviour.
"And you couldn't draft in Hamilton either because he's not unlike that. " ........Really? I've never seen Lewis try to play the team boss, that's not Lewis' style and he doesn't have the skill set to pull it off. If Ferrai could have Lewis to replace Alonso I think they'd bite his hand off, but. Lewis isn't on the market. Do you think he'd swap Merc for Ferrari?
The "son of a bitch " part I've seen on Twitter from other sources. It's why I dug around and then found this article.
I've also seen on twitter speculation that he's going to Merc. When asked, Lauda categorically denied it. Said, why would we change we have front row locked out ( Japan). Nico is under contract for the next two years at least and we are opening contract talks with Lewis to extend his contract past next year. When the same question was posed to Lewis apparantly he looked bemused and said 'maybe he's going in a third car.'
He doesn't rubbish Alonso's accomplishments but rather weighs them lightly against his off-track actions, with dubious non-specified sources,
as though Mattiachi is fully justified. Unless he's keeping small boys locked up in his motorhome, I'd take track results over whatever else he does
off it. And this is assuming things have gone down as Hughes says. Maybe Alonso was having contract talks with McLaren prior to Monti going,
and has left Ferrari with no choice but to hastily sign Vettel or be left with an ailing Kimi and an unknown quantity. It's all very murky.
Hamilton tried to play Mclaren's hand in 2012 with the twittergate. He left there in less than friendly circumstances. Even his pit crew didn't want much to
do with him afterhours. I actually felt quite sorry for him because I don't think he's vengeful in any way but rather retreats into himself which can naturally
isolate you in a team environment. I get the feeling he loves racing to the core and everything else is just a nuisance. It's an unfortunate dichotomy of the
sport, the singular and publicly singled out driver surrounded by a crew who work together constantly both for and with them. And we live in a twisted world
where everybody wants to be an individual but still wants to fit in, so it's ironic that when given a rare gift people don't just respect that, and let you do
your own thing. Different will never be accepted.
And the SOB part - you know, that may have been said, probably was, you're right, but in what context we just don't know. I'm aware Alonso is a prickly character
but I can't think of a top, top driver in my lifetime who hasn't been. Prost burned bridges wherever he went, MS was ruthless, Senna a bully, Mansell a princess,
Lauda a pr!ck, even Hamilton's a moody guy, but that's more insular. It goes with the territory. It's the Bergers and Hills and Vettels and Buttons and until recently
Rosbergs who are the nice guys, that level down. They sometimes win WC, usually they are 'car' champions, but they don't have that special talent.
