[Driver] The GOAT - Round One - Alonso vs Kubica

[crmalcolm]

The sixteenth match-up in Round One sees Alonso vs Kubica.

So who do you vote for as the greater driver?

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso achieved 32 wins, 97 podiums, and two World Drivers’ Championships in his first 202 starts in F1. In this period, he was 8 points away from a further three championships. In the followin. With what was a Schumacher-level talent, Alonso could potentially have won as many titles as cars allowed. Yet, his pattern of consistently landing in declining teams after his bust-up with McLaren in 2007 extinguished any hopes of topping the record books. Most of Alonso’s moves seemed quite reasonable at the time, looking only foolhardy with hindsight. His move to Renault in 2008 on short contracts allowed a transfer to Ferrari. Unfortunately, it was the wrong move. The Todt-Brawn-Byrne superteam disintegrated and Ferrari were looking shaky in 2009 when Alonso put ink to the contract. In 2008, Red Bull had offered Alonso a two-year contract for 2009-2010, which could with hindsight have led to a string of titles from 2009-2013. But who could have predicted Red Bull’s sudden upswing in 2009?

Alonso’s options were arguably limited at times by his reputation as a divisive and self-focused driver, who preferred to be the team’s central focus. What we can say with certainty is that Alonso was one of the defining talents of his generation. In fact, every objective driver ranking model that separates team and driver performance has ranked Alonso the top driver of the post-Schumacher generation, despite varying mathematical assumptions and varying data inputs.

In 2007, Kimi Räikkönen squeaked to the title by a single point while McLaren imploded with internal strife. In 2012, Alonso famously wrestled a relatively uncompetitive Ferrari into championship contention, narrowly losing the title to Vettel at the final race. While the Ferrari was clearly at a significant deficit in terms of pace, it did have better reliability than Red Bull or McLaren. This has led to disputes over the car’s ultimate championship worthiness, with some fans arguing it was the 4th or 5th best car, and others arguing it was the best overall package.

Alonso’s peak period according to many is 2012-2014, a period that includes his championship near-miss in 2012, a superb but ultimately futile performance against a dominant Red Bull at Ferrari in 2013, and his utter domination of Kimi Räikkönen in 2014 (16-1 in counting races, 16-3 in qualifying, and 161-55 in points), as he dragged a shambles of a car into frequent contention for podiums and wins while Räikkönen finished only once inside the top 5. Alonso’s domination of Räikkönen is one of the most one-sided teammate head-to-head battles in F1 history.

One of Alonso’s chief strengths across his F1 career was his extreme adaptability, as he learned to excel under three tyre manufacturers and in cars with greatly differing characteristics. In the Michelin era, he perfected an extremely aggressive turn-in, whereas in the Pirelli era, on tyres that tolerated smaller slip angles, he adopted a far smoother style, often manipulating the car at turn-in with a subtle dab of throttle. In races, Alonso was relentlessly consistent. The strength of Alonso’s race performances is emphasized by the fact that qualifying was often considered a relatively weak point, although he was evidently one of the strongest qualifiers of his generation (going 15-16 against Jarno Trulli and 8-9 against Lewis Hamilton).

Robert Kubica
We sadly missed out on the peak period of Robert Kubica’s career. In 2010, he was competitive with the sport’s elite.

Across 2006-2009, Kubica raced alongside Nick Heidfeld. The overall head-to-head tally was extremely close: 24-24 in counting races, 29-28 in qualifying, and 137-150 in points. An impressive result for Kubica when one considers that Heidfeld was effectively at his peak. In 2010, Kubica moved to Renault, where he raced alongside rookie Vitaly Petrov. Kubica dominated Petrov 13-1 in counting races, 17-2 in qualifying, and 136-27 in points. Kubica was then severely injured in a rally crash before the 2011 season, nearly losing his right arm.

After many years of recovery, Kubica returned for Williams in 2019, where he seemed to altogether lack his former speed. It was, unfortunately, not the Kubica we had seen before. Ultimately, the fact that Kubica returned at all, given the challenges he faced, was extraordinary.

[Aysedasi]

This one really should be a whitewash.....

[chillibowl]

yep RK drew a tough 1st round opponent.

[FIRE]

Alonso