Originally Posted by
William_Olive:
“Look at this joke of punditry by Herbert. The worst I've seen for ages.
'Fernando Alonso should retire', says Sky Sports F1's Johnny Herbert.
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/241...johnny-herbert”
I have long wanted a Sky pundit to be a bit controversial in what they say and try and create a bit of debate so I don't want to be too critical of this. However, it does smack of trying to create controversy.
Eddie Jordan clearly holds some strong views on Formula 1 and expresses them consistently, even if it means he gets called a 'village idiot'. Herbert however doesn't really seem to have done that at all, if anything he's been too bland in his punditry- so this really seems to have come out of the blue. The last mildly controversial thing I remember him saying was having a go at Grosjean in 2012 after his series of incidents.
To continue the comparison with EJ, Eddie is someone who holds a lot of clout in the paddock and although he is perceived as a bit of a nutter you can see that people respect him. Is that the same for Herbert? Maybe I'm being harsh on him but if it was Damon- World Champion- that had said this maybe we'd be viewing if differently.
So I read the article properly and there are
some decent points raised in it, the comparison with Schumacher after his return is interesting one (although not necessarily one I agree with) as well as Alonso not enjoying the new V6 cars.
But the rest of the article is bizarre- the comparison with Jenson and Alonso is unfair. How are you meant to compare these two on last years performance?! The car was so bad they didn't have a chance to race.
My favourite bit however is
'He still has a good racing brain and knows where to put the car, but he doesn't have the pace.' Now I may be being a bit thick here- but isn't that what a driver does effectively? Have a racing brain, put the car in the right place on track and press the peddles at the right time. Surely the pace comes from the car? It's this car that doesn't have the pace. No?
The drivers role is the positioning on track and knowing when to deploy all the gadgets and look after the tyres (racing brain).
Maybe its me being relatively new to motorsport meaning I don't entirely understand it but I'm not sure that line of argument makes any sense.
Another thing that has bugged me is that both Brundle and now Herbert have criticised Alonso for not protesting about wanting to be in the car this weekend. Yet, he can't be. He's been deemed medically unfit to race. The FIA won't let him in the car. I'm not sure what more they want him to do. They seem to have this image of the 'good old days' when they'd jump back in the car no matter what. Well, drivers died in the 'good old days'.
To be fair to Brundle, he appears to have changed his mind on Twitter this morning, making sure it is known that it is the FIA that isn't letting Alonso race and not a lack of effort on behalf of the team/Alonso.
Apologies, it's a bit ranty and maybe a little unfair. Probably just got up on the wrong side of bed this morning!