According to Eddie Jordan, Fernando Alonso will face at least a two-year wait before winning another title. He believes this is because he needs time to settle at McLaren. He explained “It’s a two-season job by the time Alonso gets his own people around him. It was exactly the same with Michael Schumacher – it was two seasons before he made any major impression with Ferrari.” He then added “I have a feeling that McLaren needs Alonso more than Alonso needs McLaren right at this moment” – perhaps alluding to a recent exodus of top men from McLaren.
However Mark Webber disagrees. The Australian driver believes all Alonso needs is a ‘good car’ from McLaren. “He’s the class of the field at the moment, there’s no-one who can compete with him consistently,” Webber explained. He said he thought that the arrival of the double world champion would give a lift to McLaren after a poor 2006 season without a single grand prix win.
Webber added that he thought the title race would most likely come down to a fight between Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. “Kimi is phenomenally quick, we know that. Whether he can take it to Fernando during the course of the season, it’s going to be a good fight between those two.” Although Webber still believes that Renault has got what it takes:”Renault will be strong, Kovalainen will be one of the finds of the season I think and Fisi could come out of his shell because he hasn’t got Fernando there,” he said.
Webber is optimistic about his partnership with David Coulthard at Red Bull next season.”There’s a lot of pressure inside the team, they want to go and achieve things,” he said. “They want to make a difference next year, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone there. Is it world-beating? Over time, it could be but I’m absolutely praying that they’re going to be one of the finds of the season next year.”
