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Fernando Alonso


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#616 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 15 May 2017 - 16:34

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#617 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 17 May 2017 - 12:33

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Cak i na ova 4 tocka u padoku u Indijanapolisu Alonso je brzi nego u svom F1 bolidu! :rotflmao:


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#618 stex

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Posted 17 May 2017 - 12:43

Dobar skejt.


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#619 /13/Ален Шмит/

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Posted 18 May 2017 - 14:51

Why I’m Racing in the Indy 500

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The first car I ever raced in wasn’t built for me.

It was for my sister.

My dad wanted her to drive go-karts, like he used to. So, in our garage, he built her one — from scratch. The only problem was, she was an eight-year-old girl who had no interest in spending her weekends racing around the go-kart circuits of northern Spain.

So he put three-year-old me in there. The kart was a little big at first. I couldn’t quite reach the pedals, but we adjusted the seat, moved the pedals up and made it work.

I loved driving, but I loved just as much the time with my family. My mom, dad, sister and I would drive to different tracks and spend our weekends there. Every day I would race for a few hours and then play soccer in the Spanish sun with my friends. Those days are still with me every time I go to the track today.

I learned a lot about driving in those days, but just as important, I learned something about myself:

I love to race. Like really, really race. And that’s why on May 28, on the biggest weekend in motor sports, I won’t be with my Formula 1 team at the Monaco Grand Prix. I’ll be in Indianapolis. Racing at the Brickyard. Because I need to be. The Indy 500 is one of the greatest events in the sport. Drivers all over the world know this. I belong there. Because I’m a racer.

I always have been, and I always will be.

Go-karting is racing in its purest form. It’s tight driving on small circuits with lots of overtaking and battling. As a driver, you learn the art of racecraft here. Like I said, my father built our go-kart, and most of our money went to travel expenses, so that kart would have to last us a couple of years. Even the tires had to last. We had just the one set.

But those types of problems, they help you learn.

One race, during one of my first seasons, it rained. That day, I saw a wet tire for the first time. It was on another car beside me on the grid. I really had no idea what it was. The other drivers’ tires were much rougher, giving them greater grip in the wet conditions.

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I raced on slicks (dry tires) in the rain — that’s all we had. But it wasn’t strange to me, because it’s all I knew. I had been driving on them for a couple of years, I knew what they could do. I had to be more cautious, more precise. I was only six years old, but I was adjusting on the fly. I took wider entries into corners so I could get the nose pointed straight and get back on the power quicker. I adapted, because I had to. I learned and I grew, and I loved it.

As I took it more seriously, I also started to learn more about the tracks I was driving on. I enjoyed learning the specifics of a circuit — I wanted to know everything about every single turn before I even got in the kart.

That day, I saw a wet tire for the first time. It was on another car beside me on the grid.

When I was 13, I was improving quickly and I started spending time in Italy working with an engine manufacturer and learning everything I could. It was there I started to get a complete understanding of my kart. Plus, I got to miss school when I went to Italy … and I liked that. I was chasing a different type of knowledge.

In 1996, I won the Junior World Cup of Go-Karting. After that, my family and I thought I may have a future in racing.

But what was that future?

In the ’90s in Spain, Formula 1 — and auto racing in general — wasn’t very popular. Our country loved football and motorbike racing. I didn’t know anything about the big European championships. I didn’t even know who Michael Schumacher was. I was just racing.

In 2000, I made the jump to Formula 3 in Europe. We raced on some of the most historic circuits in the world, like Spa and Monaco, and my eyes were opened to the history of motor sports. I used to think the go-kart circuits in Spain were everything. But there I was in Monaco, and I was shown a whole new world. Between race weekends I would look up guys that I kept hearing about in the paddock. Guys like Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. And the more I learned about them, the more it motivated me. I wanted to get to that level.

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A year later, I was in a Formula 1 car for the first time. After my rookie season with Minardi, I spent the next year as a test driver (like a backup) for Renault. A year after that I was a full-time driver for them. In 2003, I earned earned my first pole and podium, in Malaysia, and my first win, in Hungary.

Sure, I remember all the wins and the championships. But some, like that first victory, are special. Those are the races where you remember everything — down to what you had for breakfast at the hotel. Those are the ones that I love.

A couple of years later, in April of 2005, I had another one of those races.

It was the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in Italy. I had qualified in second just behind Kimi Räikkönen the day before. But Sunday morning, my team, Renault, had an issue with our car. One of our V-10 cylinders wasn’t working. We basically had a 9½ cylinder engine, which is not ideal. The power input was down from the engine — essentially we were slower. We considered replacing the engine with a new one, which would have resulted in a penalty and put us at the back of the grid for the race start. Or, we could stick with it and take whatever result came.

I used to think the go-kart circuits in Spain were everything.

We stuck with it.

Just nine laps into the race, Kimi retired due to a driveshaft issue in his car. I led for the next 50 laps. The car felt good. A little less power than usual, but I was in a rhythm. With 12 laps to go and still in the lead, I went into the pits for fresh tires. When I got back on the track, I looked in my mirrors, and all I saw was bright red. Ferrari red. Michael Schumacher was pushing me hard. He had more power that day and … yeah, he was so fast.

But I relied on my memories, on what I had learned. I knew the track. I knew the car.

I adapted. I tried to keep him behind me at all costs. It was as much a mental battle as physical. Michael was diving at me every few corners, trying to get a young kid to make a mistake.

But I didn’t. I held on for the win, and even now, that is maybe my favorite race I’ve ever driven. Or at least it’s up there. (It’s hard to just have one.) I remember it so fondly because my team and I overcame the odds from the morning and used all of our ability to get that win. It wasn’t like any other race I had really ever driven. It was totally new.

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I’m a racer. I always have been, and I always will be.

Now, it’s time for something else new. A new track. A new car. A new world.

I have been thinking about Indy for four or five years now. I had seen a few races, but didn’t know too much about the series. I knew some of the names, and the teams, but basically it’s all new information for me. So I am back to doing what I love again, learning. Everyone — from the team at McLaren-Honda-Andretti, to the people I’ve met during my time in America — has been so helpful.

The only people who aren’t so helpful are the other Formula 1 drivers, because they’re all jealous. Hahaha. I joke, I joke (not really). They’re all very supportive of me and keep wishing me good luck. We’re a tight group in the F1 paddock. It means a lot when one of us does well in another series. When Nico Hulkenberg won at Le Mans in the FIA WEC in 2015, it was a big deal for us.

It’s hard to miss the Monaco Grand Prix, but the tradition at Indy is tremendous as well. I keep hearing about it from everyone I speak with. I can’t wait for the prerace ceremonies and the atmosphere. Here I am, a veteran driver, but it’s all brand new to me. The anthem, the circuit, the racing — I’m very thankful to experience it. I’m going to try and enjoy my time outside the car as much as I can. Because once race weekend comes around, it’s go time.

Thanks to the simulator testing, I felt like I knew my car before I got in it last week at Indy. But once I did, there was one thing that nothing could have prepared me for: the raw, unfiltered feeling of power. Indy cars are a little more simple than the F1 cars, so it’s more pure. There’s less mechanical grip here, so the throttle has a bit more punch. It took a little time to get comfortable, but the team did a great job preparing me. My biggest takeaway from being behind the wheel was just sheer excitement. I can’t wait for May 28.

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Like my first go-kart, this car wasn’t built for me. I’m not the intended driver, but I’m going to do everything I can to make the people who built it proud. And maybe this will be the start of a new journey for me as well.

And I want to make something clear. I’m not coming for a “week off” or to just have fun — I am a racer, I am coming to race. Above all, I hope this is an experience I can take with me for the rest of my life. I hope the feelings I feel, and the things I see stay in my mind forever.

And I hope that at the end of those 500 miles, I’ve learned something that I never knew before.


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#620 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 18 May 2017 - 20:59

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Exclusive Fernando Alonso interview: "I will finish Indy as a better driver"
Thursday, 18 May 2017
Chris Medland / Images by Levitt/LAT & IMS


When RACER's F1 writer Chris Medland and Fernando Alonso cross paths, it's usually in the paddock at a grand prix. This week, the pair sat down in the unfamilar - for them - surrounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Spaniard's first exclusive print interview during the Month of May.
 
It's mid-afternoon on the second day of practice for the 101st running of the Indy 500. Fernando Alonso has just completed a number of runs in his McLaren-Andretti Honda and jumps out to have a debrief with his engineers.

In this open pit lane, he jumps the pit wall and takes off his helmet to hand to his physio. The only barrier between Alonso and the fans with pit access is two sets of Firestone tires stacked four high. But that doesn't stop the braver supporters – one immediately walks over with an iPad to request a photograph. Fernando hasn't even taken his balaclava off yet, but he removes it and obliges.

"I think they scared me a little bit too much when I came here!" Alonso says of the off-track experience so far. "They said that it's going to be crazy with the fans and the activities around the event, but so far it's more or less as in Formula 1.

"You get the media events, you get these kind of interviews and you get the fans. They're a little bit closer – especially in the pit lane, which is quite new – but apart from that, the level of activities remains similar to the F1 weekend. So, not too bad to deal with everything so far.

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Obviously sometimes it's not ideal in the sense that you need to talk to the engineers. It's the right moment when you've got a fresh run in your head, so you want to talk about something. You remove the helmet and you would like to talk with the engineer, but you spend 20 seconds there with the fans.

"Also, because I'm new here and it's this big thing that I came here, if you see all the pit lane and all the garages are quite empty apart from mine! So I think that with time it will get a little bit more relaxed, and people will get a little bit more used to seeing me here, as if you are a normal racer here. I think that's a very unique thing for me at this event and also for them, so I have a little bit more attention than normal."

Of course, Alonso is still deep in the acclimatization phase. He's sitting with RACER for an exclusive interview before he begins his fourth day of practice at the Brickyard, and so far he can sum up his week in two words: "Huge lessons.

"There's a lot of learning in everything you do here. You go out there, you jump in the car, adjust the set-up of the car, the precision you need with your feedback and the set-up tuning... they change a quarter of a millimeter here, a quarter of a degree there, things that could change the balance of the car completely, even if four corners seems not too difficult.

"With the wind effect and how the cars are on the limit, small changes can make or ruin your confidence in the car to stay flat-out through the corners and things like that. So that is a huge lesson, to be very precise.

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"Racing in traffic has also been a good lesson. You keep learning what one guy did to you, you follow another two cars, you see someone try to overtake in one corner and then back off because he felt that it wasn't the best opportunity, but I understood it now because he prepared [himself for] the next three corners.

"So definitely as a driver you keep adding experience and you keep adding good lessons. At the moment for me, the whole event as a driver keeps adding quality, experience and I think I will finish the event as a better driver. Despite the result - I could finish the event in 28th - I will be a more complete driver. So that's the first step of this adventure, to be better and better every day."

I usually encounter Alonso during F1 race weekends, when he can often be fidgety and impatient while dealing with media situations. Sat in Andretti hospitality at the IMS, there is a much more relaxed demeanor about the two-time world champion, despite his early start for simulator running. But the change if scenery is not something Alonso feels he needed after three years of struggle with McLaren-Honda in F1.

"I think at the end of the day, Formula 1 is one weekend – you race, you try to do your best, but I have many other activities during the year that I put all adrenaline into and I find some joy there.

"This is more about the experience, a big event - one of the biggest events in motorsport - and it has also been surprisingly good in terms of the welcome here and the media response I've had from day one. From the fans here too, every single message I've received is 'Thanks for being here', 'I'm proud you're here', 'Thanks for coming'. It's an amazing welcome and I think that elevates the decision and the happiness to be here."

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While his first impressions of IndyCar racing are positive, the Spaniard is wary of the experiences that are still ahead of him when it comes to thinking about a more permanent move to race Stateside.

"I don't think too much about that at the moment, because I want to experience the event and finish the event on Monday morning, sleep on it and try to see how it was. I want to see how the whole thing goes. Now, you are obviously focused on practice, but qualifying will be exciting.

"Gil de Ferran - who is helping me every day - he keeps repeating: 'Man, the four laps of qualifying will be the most horrible laps that you have ever done in a car!' Because the car feels so light, you trim a lot of the downforce, you want to have a good position. You know the qualifying position doesn't matter at all, but even with that you're still going flat-out into those corners, so when you finish those four laps you say to yourself 'I will never do that again!'

"So I still have to live so many moments and experiences here that I will wait until Monday the 29th to really think about the possibility of coming back to do more things, after I've thought how everything was. So far it's a fantastic experience, but so far it's all been about emotions and excitement, it's still not real racing yet, or things that could change my mind."

Despite his positive experience so far, there is only one thing that will make this adventure a real success in Alonso's eyes, and that is victory. He has already been measured for the winner's ring, and has even enquired as to what it would cost to commission a full-size replica Borg-Warner trophy to keep. The original is worth $3.5million, and he didn't baulk at the seven-figure estimate...

While F1 remains his priority, asked if he will be back at the 500 in the future until he's won it, Alonso replies: "Yeah, probably.

"The ultimate target and goal is to win this race, to win Le Mans, to win another Formula 1 world title. That's what motivates a driver to wake up every day, so I'm lucky enough that I want to race the Indy 500 and the planets move, the stars move and I'm here. I want to race in Formula 1 and I normally find a team that welcomes me into an F1 car. And in the future I'm sure that I want to do the 24 Hours of Le Mans and I'm sure I will find a seat there as well.

"So thanks to those big opportunities and the luck I have to be able to participate in those, winning is the next target. If I'm able to enjoy it here and I'm able to have another opportunity, why not?"

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#621 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 21 May 2017 - 15:57

Tradicionalna zvanicna fotka za Indi 500:

 

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#622 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 24 May 2017 - 17:46

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Alonso tipped to drive vintage McLaren before Indy 500
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Image by IMS Photo

ABOVE: Johnny Rutherford's McLaren M24B in 1978.

The details are a little bit hazy, but Fernando Alonso is expected to drive a vintage McLaren Indy car during one of the retro Indy 500 demonstration session before climbing into the cockpit of his Andretti-McLaren Honda on Sunday.

It's believed the McLaren Formula 1 driver, who will make his Indy 500 debut from fifth on the grid, will climb into a 1977-'79 McLaren M24 chassis powered by a turbocharged Cosworth DFX V8 engine in either the Saturday vintage session or the Sunday pre-race session planned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 1977 M24 and the M24B versions that followed took everything McLaren learned from its successful Offy-powered M16 through to the M16E which scored three Indy 500 wins from 1972-'76, and used it to take on the best from Chaparral, Coyote, Lightning, Lola, and other constructors.


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#623 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 25 May 2017 - 20:53


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#624 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 29 May 2017 - 15:46

Alonso je nastupom na Indi 500 zaradio svoje prve bodove ove sezone, i sa 47 poena trenutno je 25. od 34 vozaca na tabeli Indikar sampionata.


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#625 alberto.ascari

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Posted 29 May 2017 - 21:23

Alonso je nastupom na Indi 500 zaradio svoje prve bodove ove sezone, i sa 47 poena trenutno je 25. od 34 vozaca na tabeli Indikar sampionata.

 

Verovatno će biti bolje plasiran na kraju sezone u ICS nego u F1.


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#626 romantik

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Posted 29 May 2017 - 21:27

U svakom slucaju imace vise bodova :)


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#627 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 29 May 2017 - 21:29

Nazalost, ali tako je.


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#628 /13/Ален Шмит/

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Posted 03 June 2017 - 14:24

Novi bolid u Alonsovom muzeju, ovaj je komotno mogao doći i sa PJ u njemu  :lol+: Pitam se jel ga je sam gurao od prikolice do ovog mesta isto k'o u Mađarskoj '15

 

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Edited by /13/Ален Шмит/, 03 June 2017 - 14:25.

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#629 /13/Ален Шмит/

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Posted 09 June 2017 - 02:37

Obožavam ove strateški pametno postavljene novinarske patke 

 

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#630 Rad-oh-yeah?

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Posted 09 June 2017 - 02:58

Pa nije bas tako rekao (da ce sigurno da ode ako ne pocnu da pobedjuju), ali je rekao da je jedini nacin da ga Meklaren sigurno zadrzi da pocnu da pobedjuju. Sto mu je manje-vise isto.


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