Alonso's Mental Strength in the face of Hamilton and the WDC

[Tech_Skill]

I was very impressed with Alonso's mental toughness this weekend, which made me think about something I have been saying for a while now. Alonso's major WDC challenger, may actually be himself rather than the others.

In my opinion, Hamilton is still in Alonso's head and I believe Hamilton is the one driver in this sport that Alonso fears because he knows Hamilton for raw pace is probably the fastest in the sport right now. Ferrari need to work with Fernando on the Hamilton factor and how Fernando handles situations when Hamilton is behind him on the grid or how to react when Hamilton is catching him up because I think Alonso still holds a huge amount of resentment and self doubt from 2007 over till this day.

Ferrari need to work with Alonso on finding a way to channel that into something which improves his performance. I believe this is the real key to the championship, because I believe its possible this championship may boil down to a last race shootout with Hamilton and Alonso involved and should it do, the mental toughness of either driver will decide it.

I believe Alonso needs to come to terms with the fact that Hamilton IS something special. I hate Hamilton with a passion but you cannot deny what is in front of you. We must work with Fernando to make him understand where Lewis's weak points (choker, bottler, kills his tyres, cant setup a car etc) are and how Fernando can take advantage of them and how Fernando handles the battle.

Alonso made a massive step in the last few weeks when he got over the injustice of the FIA witch-hunt and simply said 'enough is enough, lets focus on us, not the FIA, I can win this'. I felt that was hugely important and I honestly believe it rattled a few of his rivals because Lewis and co love to wind him up and then call him a whiner. However when Alonso said he would be WDC, it deffo rattled a few people (think about how much media coverage that statement got) and the media were eager to find out why Alonso was so confident, this is the kind of approach he needs to use to unstabilise the other drivers.

Even after today, he told BBC, 'im happy but im already thinking about Hungary', which again, was a fantastic line, almost as if he was saying 'I dont give a damn about what happened today, im going for title nothing can stop me see ya next week', mark my words, that kind of talk does not go unnoticed.

I thought his stint to close the gap on Massa from 2.5 to 0.8 secs was outstanding, to me it looked like the car was near the limit and he was pumping in fastest lap after fastest lap with virtually no mistakes just like we expect him too, his laps in Q3 under pressure were outstanding also.

So i guess what im trying to say is, I believe Mentally alonso may have turned a corner, but we need to work with him on Hamilton and Mclaren, because the closer alonso gets to this title, the more the media and Mclaren will try to put doubt in his mind over whether he can beat Lewis or not etc and whether lewis got preference back in 2007, they will drag all that stuff up again to unsettle him, so he needs to be prepared.

I think what we have seen this weekend is that a focused Alonso in the right car is arguably the most complete driver in the sport and I think the real contender he faces in this WDC is himself and whether he can get away from 2007 and the self doubt it brings. I would say Ferrari's ability to keep Fernando focused correctly may be the difference in who wins the WDC this year, its that important.

[Agron]

I don't pretend to know what's inside Alonso's mind, nor know data from him and Hamilton, and at the risk of sounding like the totally biased fanboy which I probably am XD, I disagree with Hamilton being faster on race pace or qualifying. I admit there's little between the two, but at least to me, it feels like historically Alonso has brought more from his cars than Hamilton has, so maybe it's just Lewis driving top cars for 4 seasons now and Alonso having crap cars for two years and fighting against his team for another may have clouded our judgement on this. In fact, he is said to be having his worst season yet driving wise, and without very bad luck at Valencia, Silverstone and Canada he could be leading the championship in what for most of the season has been the 2nd-3rd car, and has been outpacing Massa so much that in Lewis&Kimi dominated forums it's almost considered a fact that Massa hasn't recovered from his injuries.

Regarding mental strength I agree he seems more off than other drivers when he does bad compared to Hamilton, Vettel or his teammate, yet I'm pretty sure it's not because of an individual, but rather because he only thinks of the championship, in my oppinion he would prefer Hamilton to win and him coming second than him winning and another title contender being second if that meant his title chances against his main rivals increased. Much like Schumacher, his main objective in F1 now seems to win as many championships as possible to prove to everyone he is the best through undeniable facts, and things like race wins or FL don't matter. But IMO, he has been taking so much criticism for so long from the same elements with an agenda, that I think he doesn't care anymore. A reporter some time ago commented that he pictured Alonso as drinking a coctail while sitting peacefully in front of his home while there was a huge tornado destroying everything just across the street LOL, not surprising that in the middle of the 2008 Singapore GP scandal, he dedicated his podium finish there (2009) to Flavio, to the anger of the media, FIA, ...

[killer]

I believe Alonso needs to come to terms with the fact that Hamilton IS something special. I hate Hamilton with a passion but you cannot deny what is in front of you. We must work with Fernando to make him understand where Lewis's weak points (choker, bottler, kills his tyres, cant setup a car etc) are and how Fernando can take advantage of them and how Fernando handles the battle.

A bit tricky to discuss this as we will never have facts behind most of what we will say but this is an interesting point you bring up. Lewis is easy not to like but it must be said that he is a talent. Having said that I would think that these top drivers are aware that drivers in top teams are special but think themselves superior 100% of the time--this is just the attitude needed to win. I don' think Alonso needs to (or indeed does) focus particularly on Lewis more than Felipe, Jenson, Seb, Mark, or Robert. So there, I'm sure Fernando already recognizes Lewis's skill, but I don't believe he should pay him special attention.