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[al4x]

a thank-you

Shhhh nobody is supposed to know!!

back on topicc if he can get overtaking mastered itd make a visible difference for the doubters out there

[f1s best fan]

he's good over single lapps but he cannot withhold that speed for the full race, unlike hamilton who can, in aBOUT 5 years he will probably be the second best driver out there with hamilton firs and vettel third

[silberpfiele]

This has been a very interesting topic of discussions and as far as I am concerned, it has got more to do whith the tyres than anything else.

Lewis Hamilton has the ability to generate heat in the tryes quicker than his teammate. And this plays a very crucial part in deciding the race strategies. One of the main drawbacks of this is that Lewis is harder on his tryes, and thats why he has been given a lesser fuel load than Kovy, which would enable him to pit early and change the tryes.

Now the thing with Kovy is that he takes more time to generate heat in the tryes, and hence forth is given a longer stint so that he can make up for the time consumed in heating the tryes initially. This is why he is fueled a couple of laps more than Lewis, so that he gets the optimum temperature in tyres. Another reason is that he is kinder to his tryes, which enables him to have a longer stint than Lewis, eventually makes the tyre last long and thats why he can afford to have longer stints. nit the same can be said for Lewis who is harder and hence is required to come into the pits earlier than his teammate

This has been the major reason behind Mclaren's strategies for these two drivers. As far as Kovy's race performance is concerned, in my view he is still on the learning curve of crafting his race pace and ut will take him some time to evolve into a complete race winning driver. But the pace is there, only that he needs to put up all the pieces together in the race.

[Gaz]

he's good over single lapps but he cannot withhold that speed for the full race, unlike Hamilton who can, in aBOUT 5 years he will probably be the second best driver out there with hamilton firs and vettel third

yeh i agree but unless he improves next season i can't see Mclaren giving him a seat with the likes of Vettle and perhaps Kubica about meaning he'll proberly end up with a midfield team.

[McLaren Fan]

Welcome to the forum, fellow McLaren supporter. I like your signature.

Talking about Kovalainen again, I agree that next season will be crucial for him. If there is no significant improvement, he will have to go. To be really honest, he's had more than enough time already. Not since Michael Andretti have I been so annoyed with a McLaren driver.

[digitaleye]

Puhleez.....! Kovy is the PERFECT number 2 driver, I wouldn't be surprised if he never left McLaren. The same reason DC and Rubens stayed so long respectively. Do we have to go over this yet again?
The last thing uncle Ron wants is 2 hot-sots duking it out and making a mess of things like last year.

[Denthúl]

Puhleez.....! Kovy is the PERFECT number 2 driver, I wouldn't be surprised if he never left McLaren. The same reason DC and Rubens stayed so long respectively. Do we have to go over this yet again?
The last thing uncle Ron wants is 2 hot-sots duking it out and making a mess of things like last year.

If Kovalainen gets on top of his race pace, he'll stop being so good for that role, because he is a very quick and talented guy. I just think he might need to adjust his mentality when it comes to races.

[McLaren Fan]

If Ron Dennis is so afraid of having the two best drivers in his team, why did he have Lauda and Prost in the same team, which had a few problems, and why did team together Prost and Senna, whose ill relationship is the stuff of sporting legend?

[Denthúl]

If Ron Dennis is so afraid of having the two best drivers in his team, why did he have Lauda and Prost in the same team, which had a few problems, and why did team together Prost and Senna, whose ill relationship is the stuff of sporting legend?

I think he would be far more wary now than back then because everything could have fallen apart during the Spygate saga last year. I think he'd definitely spend a lot more time analysing the personalities of prospective future 'aces' than ever because of what Alonso did.

[McLaren Fan]

If Ron Dennis is so afraid of having the two best drivers in his team, why did he have Lauda and Prost in the same team, which had a few problems, and why did team together Prost and Senna, whose ill relationship is the stuff of sporting legend?

I think he would be far more wary now than back then because everything could have fallen apart during the Spygate saga last year. I think he'd definitely spend a lot more time analysing the personalities of prospective future 'aces' than ever because of what Alonso did.

You mean to say the Senna-Prost war was not enough? As bad as things got between Alonso and Hamilton last season, it was nothing compared to the events from 1988/89 onwards. The spy scandal things is, for the most part, a separate issue as well, and the bits that were relevant were not unprecedented in McLaren's history. Balestre had sent letters to McLaren and Honda both reminding them that the equipment given to both drivers were true and Prost was very good at the old blue-eyed boy act at getting what he wanted in the team.

[scotty]

I'm afraid i just cannot subscribe to the 'Kovalainen will improve his race pace over time' thing. If there was actually any substantial potential there he'd surely have started to tap into it by now... he's managed one lucky victory and what, 2, 3 podiums? That's almost laughable when you think he has a pretty awesome car underneath him. There are a lot of better drivers out there - although he seems like a good bloke so i wish him all the best.

[digitaleye]

If Ron Dennis is so afraid of having the two best drivers in his team, why did he have Lauda and Prost in the same team, which had a few problems, and why did team together Prost and Senna, whose ill relationship is the stuff of sporting legend?

Lauda and Prost were never on the same level as drivers. Lauda was great in his day but by the 80's Prost owned him and there's really no debate about it. Lauda's 10th place finishes in 83 and 85 will attest to that. Yes, of course he lucked into the 84 championship on the back of Prost's Monaco misfortune (look up debacle in the dictionary and it'll say 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. Makes Lewis travails look like fair play by comparison ). Seriously though, Lauda did drive well in 84 but he really was on his way out while Prost was coming into his heyday. Mclaren knew Prost was the future.

Then came Senna. Ron could afford to put Senna and Prost together because at the time there was no competition, no matter what happened Ron was sure to get the constructors Championship no matter how much Ayrton and Alain hated each other. I think then though he learned that wasn't the way to go because after that he really concentrated on the One/Two combination with Mika and DC/Kimi and DC.

Then there was Lewis. No one expected LH to be as good as he is. I think Ron expected a master /apprentice relationship with LH and Alonso. Unfortunately for everyone (except Ferrari and Kimi fans) Ron chose to give Lewis, an F1 noob, equal status to the reigning 2 time World Champion. What a surprise when things went wrong. I don't think Ron will make that mistake again.