Alonso's Poor Career Moves

There is no doubting Fernando Alonso is a very talented F1 driver - one of the very best of recent years but boy has he made some absolutely honking career moves. What makes it worse is that I am sure he could virtually walk into any team he wanted but he has still chosen wrong at least three times that I can think of off the top of my head.

First his move from Renault (where he won his two world titles) to McLaren proved to be a bad move. There was far too much friction and animosity between him and Hamilton and he left after one season after failing to get the preferential treatment he felt he merited.

From McLaren he moved to Ferrari and that started well but tailed off in the last few years and so I would have to say that was another bad career move.

Finally, he left Ferrari to move back to McLaren with high hopes that McLaren's new partnership with Honda would be competitive enough to propel him into championship contention. Well already he must be wishing he stayed put. Whereas McLaren are nowhere and may be more in a scrap with Manor than Mercedes this season his former team Ferrari looked to have made a little progress and at least there is a fair chance they will get a win or two this season. The outlook for McLaren looks very bleak as well with people involved with the team saying they may take as long as two years to catch up to the other teams.

Thoughts?

For a start he didn't move from Mclaren to Ferrari.

He's move to Mclaren at the time was correct due to his title challenge and as seen by Renault's failure that year and the few years after that.

Renault to Ferrari - again was correct barring the year as Lotus where they produced a good car still correct again, It's not like he had anywhere else he could go options were closed

Ferrari to Mclaren - Can't really judge that yet, Like Lewis is 2013 he's not there for now he's there for the future essentially.

Realistically the move he got wrong was Mclaren back to Renault the car was atrocious.

Sorry missed that one Fernando.

Obviously, moves may appear okay or right at the time but never panned out that way and that was the case with Alonso to McLaren. When he moved to Ferrari they had not long come off a purple patch and you felt sure he'd get a title there (if not more than one) but it never panned out that way and in the last couple of years Ferrari have really struggled. I think it is already evident that McLaren are struggling massively and some are putting a two year period on it before they have caught up with the rest. Now with Ferrari looking marginally better than last year they look like they could get a win or two should Mercedes have reliability issues. That being the case (in hindsight) McLaren to Ferrari looks a bad move. Even a McLaren fan would say there is no prospect of them being competitive this year and maybe more.

Just to add I do sympathise with him as things just haven't panned out the way they could have for him in his moves.

Sure things never worked out for Fernando but i doubt many would be talking about how great a driver he is if it did. For the options for moves he had he took the right ones to get him a chance for titles, He came close at Mclaren & Ferrari.

Going to Mclaren was right at the time and would of been for the time of his contract if not for spygate/wanting to be no.1 etc

Going back to Renault was a mistake they sucked hard which meant heading to Ferrari was a good move regardless it couldn't get any worse and bar Renault's/Lotus one good tyre saving season it was the right call. If it wasn't for Vitaly Petrov he'd have got atleast 1 title.

Ferrari to Mclaren appears a mistake so far but ill be more inclined to judge when Honda are running 100% not 35-50%

The worry about the McLaren move is that it looks like it will take quite some time for them to get competitive and time is something Fernando doesn't really have on his side. For his sake I hope he has another five years in him and if he does then he may still get another serious shot at another world title.

I do wonder though, if things really are in such an awful state at McLaren, whether he may look for another move in the next year or two?

Double post.

He knew it was a project & would take at least a year to develop the Honda engine, so it's not a surprise & can't be classified as a mistake. Yes, Ferrari have a better car this year, but Vettel isn't going to win a title in it, due to the domination of Mercedes, so again, not a mistake either leaving Ferrari.

The topic is about a poor career move, to me, its massively premature to state whether this has or hasn't been.

John wrote:He knew it was a project & would take at least a year to develop the Honda engine, so it's not a surprise & can't be classified as a mistake. Yes, Ferrari have a better car this year, but Vettel isn't going to win a title in it, due to the domination of Mercedes, so again, not a mistake either leaving Ferrari.

The topic is about a poor career move, to me, its massively premature to state whether this has or hasn't been.

Yes it may be premature of course but that does not mean it won't prove accurate. All the signs suggest McLaren are light years away from being in a position to challenge for titles again - even Boullier is putting a two year timescale on it until they catch up. At the moment McLaren would see winning a point as a big achievement that is how far off the pace they are. It (to me) is wishful thinking to think they'll be back among the big boys anytime soon - unfortunately.