Without the Renault launch control, Alonso looks quite poor at the start of the race. This is an area that he really needs to work on. I know both times this year he has been unlucky going into turn one rather then a poor start, but just in general he doesn't do very well at the start. It's not a Ferrari issue because Felipe Massa is brilliant off the line. Even a good start for Alonso isn't very effective - mostly just making up 1 or 2 positions.
his starts are not slow but he seems to gets boxed up aggressivly by other drivers causing him to lose places. the top drivers usually concentrate on each other which leads to the dark horse like Massa and Petrov/Hiedfeld to sneak past
He made the mistakes in melbourne he went around the outside hoping to take button but he ended up on the grass and Malaysia he turned to much into turn 2 which gave him oversteer which nearly made him crash into Felipe.
He's never struck me as a bad starter, but he has got caught out in start traffic recently. the first corner(s) at China are very similar to Malaysia (but more extreme) so we will have to see who dives into what gaps.
Not exactly. At Melbourne, Petrov came in too agressively into turn 1 - Button moved sharply to avoid him (results in button losing out to massa and petrov). Button moving causes Alonso to move to avoid Button (resulting in him going off the track and losing out to Massa, Petrov, Rosberg and Kobayashi). In Malaysia he had an average start, but the slow Webber forced him to go left. In turn 1 he got boxed in and had nowhere to go - at this point I think his only focus was avoiding a collision.
Ok maybe I was wrong about Melbourne but in Sepang what I would have done was after Turn 1 going into turn 2 brake early avoid the apex and other cars straighten the car up for best traction and regain any positions he lost or Gain positions using the slipstream and going for the inside for turn 4
After his jump start in Malaysia 2010, maybe hes a bit cautious when waiting for the lights to go out
I think you mean China 2010, but anyway, I don't think the big problem lies there, but instead the lack of agression off the line - he always takes it easy into turn one, maybe to avoid contact, but it means that even when he gets a good start, he doesn't make up as many positions as he could. The last time we saw a very agressive Alonso at the start was Singapore 2010.
If anyone here seriously thinks they might have done better, they are clueless. Every driver behind say the first 2 cars has extreme multitasking going on as the red lights go out. Extreme acceleration, gear changing, trying to see forwards AND both sides at the same time, while trying to remember how far to the first corner and the preferred position to avoid getting pushed out. Its mayhem in the middle of all that. I am always impressed that most avoid crashing into one another. Driving at its finest.
Totally agree, and that's without mentioning how pathetically useless the mirrors are. The standard of driving is so high these days, higher than it has ever been in my opinion. I can remember when I first started watching (about 15 years ago) and a first corner crash was inevitable, sometimes involving half the grid, at Spa in '98 almost the entire grid. First corner accidents are rare now unfortunately.
Hate him for Oz, he slowed right down and Schumacher was trapped behind his gearbox because of HIS mistake.
Tell you what though, I would kill for Nico to have starts like Alonso. Nico's a solid driver, but his starts atm just kick me in the balls every time when I think he'll be the dark horse this year.
Its reminding mme a bit of Schumacher who in the 1999/2000 was having terrible starts. Couldn't work the clutch at all, but after he got that ironed out of his game the rest is history
