Cs98 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2024 8:57 am
Alonso didn't want to fill a stopgap role (at Alpine!) a couple of seasons ago, now he's closing in on his mid 40s, he'll be 44 in 2025.
I don't think anything has changed. If anything I would argue he's even more motivated due to finally driving competitive machinery after so many years.
Cs98 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:06 pm
It's now or never for him, he has been waiting for a title shot for over 10 years, this is the best chance he's going to get. You can't keep kicking the bucket down the road forever. AMR may be an ambitious project, but it's not Mercedes. And let's face it, Lewis' move is more a reflection of his personal ambition to drive at Ferrari, not that Merc is going down the tubes. He probably felt it was a toss-up between the two competitively and chose the team that offered a longer contract and re-ignited some motivation for him on a personal level.
How can you be so sure Mercedes is a better option? From what I could gather in this website plus a couple I know off the top of my head...
Ross Brawn
Paddy Lowe
Loic Serra
Andy Cowell
Aldo Costa
Owen Jones
Eric Blandin (Aston's Deputy Technical Director)
Ian Greig (Aston's Head of Aerodynamics)
Plenty of other lesser but not less important people
Plus Andrew Shovlin is rumoured to leave with Lewis...
It's a huge brain drain. There may still be many brilliant minds left in the team, but this loss of talent is too great to be completely confident it's a better seat than AMR just by the Mercedes name alone.
Fernando was in fact ruined by chasing great names with former successful eras. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and he had to learn the hard way, there is no guarantee the dominant Mercedes continues to exist.