So at which point of the race did Alonso hop out the car and let you have a drive to the chequered flag? I must have missed that bit.
How on Earth can you tell, sitting on your chair/sofa/bed or other whether the car has improved or not. You've got no idea how the car felt under braking, corner rotation, lateral loads, driveability, oversteer and understeer etc. If Jenson says the car has improved I'd be inclined to believe him, considering his grounded comments after the race about taking into account the penalties etc. other drivers incurred during the race.
He also stated that "But it is definitely a step forward in terms of the performance, the car was enjoyable to drive"...
I think I'll listen to his comments, with all due respect, I've got a feeling he's somehow in a slightly better position, (given he drives the damn car) to tell us whether or not it's improving.
Even though everyone at Mclaren has lied all season, even though they promised great performance and qualified in 15th and 16th, even though it was plainly clear they couldn't overtake anything but the embarrassing Marussia's and Saubers until other cars were mid engine failure. The most hyped up moment for Mclaren fans in the race was thinking they were passing a Toro Rosso on level terms... they weren't, they needed a safety car to get close to it and the start of a complete engine failure to pass it... big freaking whoop.
Remember in China when Button was toe to toe with Maldonado.... right at the back... after Maldonado's engine was failing also, wow, much speed, competitive only when the guys in front break down.
How can I tell they weren't faster, here's a clue, it's because.... THEY WEREN'T FASTER.
Points and position aren't a measure of speed of an individual car, they are the result of dozens of cars and their entire races, to completely ignore how Mclaren got a 5th place is beyond ridiculous. You have pretty much 10 cars all losing 30+ seconds to penalties, collisions and extra pitstops. Mclaren didn't move 30 seconds forward, everyone else dropped 30+ seconds back.
AS OldCoals said and I pointed out, of the cars that didn't have some massive issue after the safety car Alonso was 34 seconds I believe beyind Kvyat, the only other one, who was 15 seconds off Vettel. Dropping 49 seconds in around 20 laps is precisely as bad as they've been anywhere else.
That is actually an exaggeration, I couldn't find the times earlier but they are available now. He started the first lap after the SC went in 26 seconds back so only lost a further 25. He was a full 103 seconds down from the lead before the safety car though. That means he lost 128 seconds to the lead... which would only have been higher with more full racing pace laps.
Mclaren were quite clearly, provably, statistically not fast today. In Silverstone, roughly 60% of the way in(where the SC came out here) Alonso was about 101 seconds behind Mercedes, in Hungary he was 103 seconds behind Vettel at a track Mclaren were supposed to be 'much' stronger at.
Exactly where is this proof of a massive speed up?
Can Mclaren fan boys really look past punctures, ers failures, dnfs, body work damage(Perez amongst others), penalties and simply say Mclaren have actually improved a lot?
I will say this, mclaren can stick with 5th place like today if, and only if, every race features as many penalties, punctures, contacts and failures as we had today. Chances of that, we get one race this 'bad' (though brilliant in terms of entertainment) every 5-10 years. This is an absolute one off in terms of chaos up and down the grid. Mclaren didn't win 5th by beating faster cars or by improving their speed, they got handed 5th by about 10 cars all doing their best to finish outside the points.
Because I would genuinely love to see some more Lewisteria out of F1 fandom this year. By which of course I mean I genuinely might laugh myself into oblivion the next time I see someone post that LEWIS CLEARLY WOULD HAVE WON IF THE CAR WAS RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE GOT OUT OF HIS WAY AND HE DIDN'T CRASH AND THE TEMPERATURE WAS RIGHT AND THE WEATHER WAS RIGHT AND HIS TEAM MATE DIDN'T SCREW HIM AND THE PIT TEAM WERE QUICK AND MARTIANS DIDN'T SWOOP IN AND DISTRACT HIM ON HIS WAY INTO THE CORNER.
